PM challenges the Labour leader to face him in a general election on December 12 – and gives MPs just over a WEEK to get Brexit done first
Boris Johnson today challenged Jeremy Corbyn to back his bid for a general election on December 12 – but said he would give MPs the chance to get Brexit over the line first . Mr Johnson tonight appeared to accept that Brussels is likely to force a long Brexit delay until the end of January as he vowed that the ‘nightmare’ surrounding the UK’s departure from the EU must not be allowed to continue.
A vote on holding a snap poll will now take place on Monday.
Assuming MPs back his call, Mr Johnson said he will give the Commons eight days to get Brexit over the line before he dissolves Parliament on November 6. But it is unclear whether Mr Corbyn will support an early election with the Labour Party hopelessly split over going to the country early. Mr Johnson told the reporter: ‘The way to get this done, the way to get Brexit done, is I think to be reasonable with Parliament and say if they genuinely want more time to study this excellent deal they can have it but they have to agree to a general election on December 12.’
Under Mr Johnson’s plans he would give MPs just over a week to scrutinise and vote on his deal. But he made clear in a letter to Mr Corbyn that he believed an election is now unavoidable because Parliament was likely to continue to ‘waste more time’. In the letter to Mr Corbyn, the PM said: ‘If the EU offers the delay that Parliament has requested – that is, we must stay in until 31 January – then it is clear that there must be an election.
We cannot risk further paralysis. In these circumstances, the Commons will vote next week on whether to hold an election on December 12. This would mean that Parliament would dissolve just after midnight on 6 November.’Mr Johnson told Mr Corbyn he believed it was their ‘duty to end this nightmare and provide the country with a solution as soon as we reasonably can’.
The PM said it would be his ‘preference’ for the EU to offer a short Brexit delay to November 15 or November 30 and that in those circumstances he hoped Labour would help him get his accord through the Commons.
But he suggested a longer delay was more likely and as a result he said that if Labour backs a snap poll then the government ‘will make available all possible time between now and 6 November’ for key Brexit legislation to be passed.
He even raised the prospect of the Commons sitting on Fridays, weekends and with early starts and late finishes. But he added: If Parliament refuses to take this chance and fails to ratify by the end of 6 November, as I fear it will, then the issue will have to be resolved by a new Parliament. An election on 12 December will allow a new Parliament and Government to be in place by Christmas.
If I win a majority in this election, we will then ratify the great new deal that I have negotiated, get Brexit done in January and the country will move on.’
Mr Johnson ended the letter, also sent to other Westminster leaders, by claiming ‘Parliament has refused to take decisions’ and that it ‘cannot refuse to let voters replace it with a new Parliament that can make decisions’.
Addressing Mr Corbyn directly, he said: ‘You have repeatedlty said that once the EU accepts Parliament’s request for a delay until 31 January then you would immediately support an election.
I assume this remains your position and therefore you will support an election next week so thje voters can replace this broken Parliament.’ The EU is expected to announce its decision on the terms of a Brexit delay tomorrow.
Downing Street believes that the bloc will offer a three month delay and if that happens the ball will be entirely in Labour’s court. In order to win a vote on holding a general election Mr Johnson will need to secure the support of two thirds of MPs.
Shadow Commons leader Valerie Vaz said after the election challenge was made that Labour ‘will back an election once No Deal is ruled out’. Assuming that the EU offers a three month delay then No Deal will be off the table and there should be no barrier to Mr Corbyn backing Mr Johnson’s call. However, even if he does it is unclear whether the Labour leader’s MPs will obey him because there is growing opposition in the party about agreeing to an early election.
Many Labour backbenchers fear the party will get decimated at an election if it sticks to its current policy of staying neutral on Brexit. Meanwhile, Mr Johnson’s decision to pivot towards an election is unlikely to go down well with many of his Tory colleagues. He was warned by some Conservative backbenchers that an early election would see the Tories ‘stuffed like Christmas turkeys’. Many Tory MPs fear that the party could lose seats in Scotland and London if a vote is held now, because of strong support for Remain in those areas as Mr Johnson pushes for Brexit.
Some Tory backbenchers are deeply sceptical that the Conservatives will be able to win a majority at a snap poll – a point they have conveyed to Number 10. And many of Mr Corbyn’s MPs are set to vote against any move to support Mr Johnson’s wish, fearing an electoral disaster.
However, in a possible sign he could whip them to back a fixed-term parliament act (FTPA) motion next week, one of his most loyal frontbenchers said they would vote for an election as soon as possible.
It comes after MPs handed EU leaders power over the timescale of UK politics, with a decision on how long the UK will remain tied to Brussels expected within days. One Conservative MP told MailOnline: ‘There is not unalloyed enthusiasm on Tory benches for a general election. That has been fed in.’
Meanwhile a Tory source was even more downbeat as they said: ‘If we go early we’ll be stuffed like Christmas turkeys.’However, party chairman James Cleverly this morning said: ‘I don’t want to be the Grinch. But the point is democracy is incredibly important and we have been prevented on discharging the duty imposed upon us.’Many Tory MPs fear the party’s hardline approach to Brexit could cost it seats in Scotland and in London and it is not clear where gains could be made. A Cabinet minister told The Sun:
We’ll lose seats in Scotland and London if it’s all about Brexit, and I can’t see where we’ll pick them up. Even if Mr Johnson does decide to press for an early election there is no guarantee that he will succeed. Veteran left-winger Mr Corbyn has vowed to support the PM’s call for a poll as soon as No Deal Brexit has been taken off the table. But two-thirds of the Commons – 434 MPs – is needed to approve an early election. And the ‘nightmare’ scenario of the party disintegrating emerged as big beasts Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry and John McDonnell, who have previously resisted the idea of an early election, stayed ominously silent on the subject.
However Labour HQ has sent out a string of loyalists in recent days to play up the chances of the party backing an early election. This morning Rebecca Long-Bailey, seen as a potential successor to the 70-year-old opposition leader, said that such a move was Labour’s ‘position’ in a radio interview this morning.
