How MPs voted on whether to call an election
Tonight all the MPs who have been demanding an election for months and who were describing last week's action to prorogue parliament for five weeks over the conference season had the opportunity to put the matter to the people and call an election.
The very people who have been calling most loudly for an election abstained rather than vote for one.
Here is how the House of Commons divided on the proposal for an election, which needed a two-thirds majority of the House to positively vote for it (an abstention for this purpose is functionally identical to a vote against.)
Some of those who voted against or did not vote said that they were concerned that the government might set the date of the election after 31st October and thereby cause Britain to crash out without a deal by default.
There is almost certainly an answer to that.
If I were Boris Johnson I would propose a very short bill which suspends the Fixed Term Parliament Act to call one election, and writes into law that that election would be held on 15th October.
That way there would be no question of the election date being moved to sabotage any possibility of a deal; and the election would take place a couple of days before the next EU summit so we would have a new or re-elected government in place which would have the opportunity to attend that summit and try to get an acceptable deal.
It will be interesting to see how MPs vote if such a proposal comes forward.
The very people who have been calling most loudly for an election abstained rather than vote for one.
Here is how the House of Commons divided on the proposal for an election, which needed a two-thirds majority of the House to positively vote for it (an abstention for this purpose is functionally identical to a vote against.)
Some of those who voted against or did not vote said that they were concerned that the government might set the date of the election after 31st October and thereby cause Britain to crash out without a deal by default.
There is almost certainly an answer to that.
If I were Boris Johnson I would propose a very short bill which suspends the Fixed Term Parliament Act to call one election, and writes into law that that election would be held on 15th October.
That way there would be no question of the election date being moved to sabotage any possibility of a deal; and the election would take place a couple of days before the next EU summit so we would have a new or re-elected government in place which would have the opportunity to attend that summit and try to get an acceptable deal.
It will be interesting to see how MPs vote if such a proposal comes forward.
Comments
Bit of a strange idea I know, but these are strange times.
For above "dunno what we want" reasons then this coalition cant last long. All the "acting" PM could realistically do is go and beg Brussels for an article 50 extension, something that is far from guaranteed, Macron will need a lot of persuasion, and Merkel is getting sick of it dragging on. Even if it is granted it will come with conditions, namely to hold a GE or another referendum. So, following begging cap in hand to the EU, all they could really do is call a GE. Public view - Boris now has his strong card again, even though we did not leave on 31 Oct, he done all he could to make it happen it was the other idiots who kept messing things up
With a loyal tory majority then brexit can be delivered, and a deal can be negotiated without clowns ruining negotiating positions.
Engineering the loss of a vote of No Confidence so that an election is caused could potentially be a way round it, but the timing is now extremely difficult.
You're quite right about much of the EU being utterly fed up with us and the French government is threatening that if the British do ask for an extension they may well veto it.
There is one way of leaving on the 31st October without breaking the law as drafted which definitely does work - and that's agreeing a deal at the EU summit. I get the impression that this is precisely what the new law was intended by at least some of the people who drafted it to force Boris to try to do.