THE GREAT ELECTION STITCH UP

Opposition pact to block snap poll ++ Rumours swirl Boris may quit ++ Mail poll: 75% of voters say MPs have failed us

VOTERS were yesterday denied an election after a ‘stitch-up’ between Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon and pro-Remain parties to delay Brexit.

in a ‘Remainer Pact’, labour, the SNP, the lib Dems and Plaid Cymru agreed to block an election before october 31.

the move was seen as a cynical bid to force Boris Johnson to resign or postpone Brexit.

it is an embarrassing U-turn for Miss sturgeon, who only days previously said an election ‘must’ be held before the Halloween deadline.

a Daily Mail poll found 75 per cent of Britons say the political class has failed to function effectively. almost half want an early election and say MPs should not have blocked one.

a law that forces the Prime Minister to keep Britain in the EU until at least January 31 completed its passage through Parliament last night and is expected to secure Royal assent on Monday.

after a torrid week in no 10, Mr

Johnson struck a note of defiance yesterday and insisted he would not go to Brussels to ask for a delay. He previously said he would rather die in a ditch than do so. ‘I will not. I don’t want a delay,’ he said. His comments were seen as an indication he could defy the law.

Asked if he would resign rather than implement what he calls a ‘surrender’ law, he said: ‘That is not a hypothesis I’m willing to contemplate. I want us to get this thing done.’

But his opponents claimed they had him ‘boxed in’ and ‘on the run’. Rebel Tories who were stripped of the whip this week for backing the law believe he will be forced to quit.

One former cabinet minister told the Mail: ‘If the law says he has got to secure an extension, then if he is going to stay as PM he has to comply with the law. So the implication of that is he is going to resign. By “die in a ditch” is he threatening to resign or is he going to commit contempt of court?’

After a morning conference call, Labour, SNP, Lib Dem and Plaid Cymru leaders agreed they will abstain or vote against an election motion on Monday.

It appeared to deal a terminal blow to Mr Johnson’s calls for an election on October 15 to break the deadlock.

But speaking in Aberdeenshire, Mr Johnson stuck by his insistence Brexit can happen.

He said: ‘I think we can get out of the EU on October 31 and that’s what we intend to do. I must say I am perplexed by the decision of the Leader of the Opposition and by the SNP to run away from an election.

‘I’ve never known an opposition in the history of democracy that’s refused to have an election. I think they obviously don’t trust the people, they don’t think the people will vote for them, so they are refusing to have an election.’

This week, Miss Sturgeon said ‘bring it on’ as she insisted that a general election ‘must be before October 31’.

But yesterday the First Minister appeared to have changed her mind. She said: ‘Johnson mustn’t be allowed to dictate the timing as a device to avoid scrutiny. While our party interest might be served by voting for an election now, it is in the wider public interest to deny a PM threatening to defy the law any ability to cut and run in his own interests.’

Of the EU Council summit on October 17, Mr Johnson said: ‘We will get a deal and we will come out.’

Tory deputy chairman Paul Scully said the Remainer Pact was a ‘stitch-up’, adding: ‘Jeremy Corbyn has voted for the British Government to surrender its negotiating position and delay yet again. Now he’s broken his promise to the people to hold an election and is stopping the voters deciding who goes to Brussels on 17 October to negotiate.’

In a boost to Mr Johnson, the poll showed he was far and away the most popular choice as PM, with a 20-point lead over Mr Corbyn, who is behind the ‘don’t knows’.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said: ‘In the past, if you passed a law you could be pretty sure the prime minister would abide by that law.

‘But we heard from the Prime Minister’s own mouth that he will die in a ditch – obviously I hope he doesn’t, but I actually hope he would obey the law.’

aFtER such a turbulent week – four Commons defeats, his brother’s resignation as a minister and failure to secure a snap election – it’s hardly surprising Boris Johnson’s poll ratings have slipped a little.

But he can take comfort from the fact that it is only a little. His party has dropped two points and his personal performance rating just marginally more.

in reality, what today’s Mail poll most clearly demonstrates is the public’s disillusionment not with Mr Johnson but with the whole flawed political class.

a minuscule 13 per cent believe MPs now serve the interests of their country. What a shocking indictment of this zombie Parliament. the sooner it’s purged by a general election, the better.

Jeremy Corbyn is still running scared of course, and these numbers show why.

For all his recent travails, Mr Johnson remains fully 20 percentage points ahead of him on the question of who would make the better prime minister. and on every major issue from education to the nHs, the tory leader is easily the more trusted.

Most damning for Mr Corbyn, however, is that although the country remains sharply divided over Brexit, a clear majority would rather leave the EU without a deal than suffer him as prime minister.

this is Mr Johnson’s shining ray of hope. He has a plan to get Brexit done, which is what great swathes of the country are crying our for.

labour by contrast, has descended into a hopeless muddle. its current position is utterly absurd. if elected, Jeremy Corbyn would go to Brussels to negotiate a new withdrawal deal. if successful, he would call a second referendum in which labour would campaign for that deal to be rejected and for Brexit to be cancelled altogether. and they accuse Mr Johnson of not being serious.

as we said in this column yesterday, Mr Corbyn can’t hide forever. this deadlock simply must be broken.

Yes, Mr Johnson has had a tough week and may be licking his wounds. But if he can regroup and rediscover the energy and optimism for which he’s renowned, this poll shows there is all to play for.