Tories fear snap poll in UK
Allies of Boris Johnson suggested to the prime minister that he could try to call a snap election in an effort to see off attempts to oust him.
However, Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is expected to argue against trying to force an election, warning that it would embarrass the Queen and risk a constitutional crisis.
In a desperate strategy to keep Johnson in office, his supporters are understood to have raised the prospect that he could ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament, triggering an immediate poll. He has been warned against the strategy by Tory MPs and senior officials.
Johnson was repeatedly pushed to rule out such a manoeuvre - which one critic described as ‘‘Trumpian’’ - when he appeared before senior MPs on the Commons liaison committee.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, the chairman of the committee, asked him to be ‘‘clear’’ that if he lost the confidence of his MPs he would not seek a dissolution of parliament but would stand aside and let a leadership election take place.
The prime minister attempted to dodge the question, saying he intended to carry on in office and ‘‘saw absolutely no need whatsoever to call an election’’.
Jenkin asked Johnson how it would help the cost of living crisis and conflict in Ukraine if Britain were ‘‘plunged’’ into a general election. Johnson then said the ‘‘earliest date’’ he could envisage a general election was 2024.
When Jenkin pressed him again to rule out an election he said: ‘‘I see no reason whatsoever for a general election now.’’
The concern among MPs came following the approval of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act that came into law this year.
The law repealed the Fixedterm Parliaments Act and allowed for parliament to be dissolved by the sovereign ‘‘on the request of the prime minister’’.
Tory MPs fear that Johnson could attempt to use it to avoid being toppled by his own MPs.
‘‘It is something that was talked about,’’ one government source said. ‘‘But it is completely deluded madness.’’
Senior Tories are understood to have been told by the Cabinet Office that Case, the head of the civil service, would warn against asking the Palace for a dissolution on the grounds that it would drag the monarch into politics.
‘‘The civil service would advise the PM to avoid putting the sovereign in a difficult position,’’ one senior MP said. ‘‘His principal private secretary or the cabinet secretary would say to the PM not to seek a dissolution because while the sovereign can refuse it would be deemed to be inappropriate [constitutionally] to put the sovereign in a position where she would have to make a controversial decision.’’
Under what are known as the Lascelles principles - laid down in a letter to The Times by George VI’s private secretary in 1950 - the monarch can refuse a request for a dissolution on three conditions. These are that the existing parliament was ‘‘vital, viable and capable of doing its job’’; an election would be ‘‘detrimental to the national economy’’; and the monarch could ‘‘rely on finding another prime minister who could govern for a reasonable period with a working majority’’.
Senior Conservative MPs believe that all three conditions are met and Case told MPs last week: ‘‘It would be quite wrong for the prime minister to put the sovereign in a difficult position constitutionally.’’
One supporter of Johnson predicted the Queen would refuse to allow the dissolution of parliament by claiming she was unavailable. ‘‘She’ll find a way of being busy until we’ve sorted this mess out ourselves,’’ the ally said.