Brexit: PM to push for election if EU agrees three-month delay

• Posted on October 23, 2019October 23, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The PM will push for a general election if the EU agrees to delay Brexit until January, No 10 has indicated.

Boris Johnson “pushed” his Brexit bill on Tuesday after MPs rejected his plan to get it signed off in three days.

Now EU leaders will consider whether to grant a delay to the 31 October Brexit deadline and what length it should be.

A letter Mr Johnson was forced by law to send to the bloc after failing to secure backing for his deal on Saturday calls for a three-month extension.

What happens now?

Although Downing Street has suggested its plan is to push for an election, the prime minister cannot force one unilaterally.

The move would need the backing of Parliament and opposition MPs have previously ruled out holding one until the prospect of no-deal on 31 October was ruled out.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland told BBC Breakfast that “regrettably it does seem that a general election is the only way to sort this impasse out”.

His opposite number, Labour’s Richard Burgon, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme his party would agree to a general election if the EU granted an extension because it meant a no-deal Brexit would certainly be “off the table”.

There are other options though – Conservative David Lidington, former de facto deputy prime minister under Theresa May, is urging the government to try again to pass its Brexit legislation – the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) – with an amended timetable.

He suggested the government should first ask the Labour Party how long its MPs needed to scrutinise the bill.

There is also the option of a further referendum, although it would require a Brexit delay and, most likely, a change of government first.

However, Mr Burgon said holding a referendum before an election – favoured by some of his Labour colleagues – was “fantasy politics”.

MPs had been due to debate the WAB over Wednesday and Thursday, but will now return to discussing the contents of the Queen’s Speech – which put forward the government’s domestic agenda for the new session of Parliament.

There is a tension in the Tory party today – some would rather try again to get the bill through. Those MPs were cock-a-hoop at the fact they had managed to get 19 Labour MPs to cross the threshold to potentially back this kind of Brexit deal – even though that is a million miles away from it getting safe passage through Parliament.

But in the heart in Downing Street the instinct is: if a delay is agreed they throw everything into an election instead.

No 10’s fear is, even if they say “maybe we could pass the bill in a fortnight,” that delay might turn into a long one, tangling with Parliament and losing control of the timetable.

Just as Parliament doesn’t trust the prime minister, the prime minister and his team don’t trust Parliament.

Opposition parties have no interest really in helping Boris Johnson to complete the passage of this bill. They want to disrupt it for perfectly obvious and legitimate political reasons.

So as things stand, the prime minister would rather trigger an election… But it is not in his gift.

-BBC