PM to try again in bid for General Election
BORIS Johnson has lost another vote to call a General Election but will try again to get Parliament to agree to a nationwide vote before Christmas.
In another bizarre episode of Westminster, MPs have refused to back a bid by the Prime Minister to hold an election on December 12 but they could, just 24 hours later, back an election to be held on the very same day.
The Prime Minister was defeated for the third time in the House of Commons in a bid to call an election.
The vote on a motion was defeated because it did not achieve the two thirds of MPs it needs to call an election under the Fixed Term Parliament Act.
MPs voted 299 in favour of an election and 70 against.
Labour MPs abstained leaving Mr Johnson well short of the 43 votes he needed.
However, the Prime Minister said he will now bring forward a short bill, that only needs a simple majority, which can be passed if the SNP and Liberal Democrats support it.
It will be his fourth attempt at getting parliament to agree to an election.
If there is a General Election voters in Glasgow will vote to elect seven MPs.
Currently there are six SNP MPs and one Labour MP in Glasgow.
The SNP said they want a guarantee that there will be no attempt to continue with the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in between agreeing to an election and Parliament being dissolved next week.
After the vote, Mr Johnson said Jeremy Corbyn had “run away” from the electorate and “turned down the offer to get Brexit done”.
The Prime Minister said he would bring forward the Bill for an election on December 12.
He said: “This House cannot any longer keep the country hostage.
“I don’t believe the paralysis and stagnation should be allowed to continue.”
The SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the SNP needed a “cast iron guarantee” that there would be no attempt to bring the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to Parliament in the meantime.
MR Blackford said that the SNP would be fighting an election on independence.
He said: “We will fight that election on the right of the Scottish people to determine their own future.”
Mr Corbyn said Labour would scrutinise the Bill for an election but he said that no deal had to be “off the table” and there was “no danger of the Prime Minister not sticking to his word”.
The SNP and LibDems had previously agreed a plan to have a General Election on December 9, three days before Boris preferred date.
The SNP and Liberal Democrats want to stop Brexit completely and want to ensure the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Bill will not be passed before there is an election.
Reports suggest the Prime Minister is willing to give that guarantee in order to get enough opposition support for the short Bill.
The Liberal Democrats however have said they won’t back an election on December 12 and want December 9 instead.
If Labour and the LibDems vote against, it could leave Mr Johnson short.
Labour want to ensure that a no-deal Brexit cannot take place before an election.
The EU had earlier agreed to a Brexit extension until January 31 or earlier if Parliament approves a deal.
Johnson’s