Labour is obliged to agree to an election

Boris Johnson was in full campaign mode during Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons yesterday, rehearsing his lines for a general election that must surely come soon. For Labour MPS it must have been a depressing experience, once again exposing the vulnerability of their leader. Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to support an election once the threat of a no-deal Brexit has been removed and a three-month extension is in place. But he must be the only member of his party who thinks he can win it. The folksy outsider who against all expectations secured 40 per cent of the vote in 2017 now looks washed up and bereft of ideas. His inability to rise to the occasion during these momentous times is of heroic proportions.

It is their leader’s weakness that has convinced many senior Labour MPS that an early election would be suicidal, which is one reason why Mr Johnson is so keen to have one. Labour languishes in the polls with less support than the party had in 1983, its post-war nadir. Mr Corbyn’s personal standing is lower than any opposition leader since polling began.

Despite their recent “Boris bounce”, the Tories are anxious that if there is not an election soon, Labour might get rid of its leader and replace him with someone more voter-friendly. The Prime Minister’s difficulty is that a snap election is not his to call under the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which effectively gifted the timing to the Opposition. This may be why he is talking to Mr Corbyn about a revised timetable for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, after Tuesday night’s defeat for a programme motion intended to ram the measure through all its parliamentary stages before October 31.

Some ministers think pressing on with the legislation beyond the deadline with a short extension is preferable to an election. But what price would Mr Corbyn exact? A confirmatory referendum is Labour’s policy from which he cannot resile. Even if the Bill does proceed it will be amended in ways Mr Johnson cannot accept.

In the Commons today, there is the small matter of a vote on the Queen’s Speech which Mr Johnson is likely to lose, confirming what we already know: he cannot govern. This is a crisis of legitimacy and authority, which the official Opposition is constitutionally required to address by agreeing to an election.