Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Leader floats Brexit election call
LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson, stymied by Parliament on his plan for Great Britain to leave the European Union by the end of the month, challenged lawmakers Thursday to approve a general election in December, hoping to win a popular mandate to carry out his vision of a swift Brexit.
But the opposition Labor Party reacted coolly to Johnson’s proposal, which he will take before Parliament on Monday, viewing it as an act of political gamesmanship rather than a serious effort to find a path out of the morass that has enveloped Britain since it voted in 2016 to leave the EU.
Throwing the question of Brexit back to the voters has been seen as a way to break out of a cycle of political paralysis. But the maneuvering in the wake of Johnson’s announcement showed that even this bid could fall prey to the same political forces that have subverted all previous efforts.
Johnson, who has already been forced to break his word by requesting an extension of the Brexit deadline until Jan. 31, presented the opposition with a quid pro quo: He would give members more time to deliberate over his deal with the EU if they agreed to back an election on
Dec. 12.
“It’s time, frankly, that the opposition summoned up the nerve to submit themselves to the judgment of our collective boss, which is the people of the UK” Johnson said in an interview with the BBC. It would be “absolutely morally incredible” for the Labor Party to refuse, he added.
The prime minister cannot simply call an election, however. Under a 2011 law, he would need the support of two-thirds of the members of Parliament, something that would be impossible without the votes of Labor Party lawmakers. They already rebuffed his attempt to call an election in October.
Since taking office in July, Johnson, leader of the Conservative Party, has viewed an election as a remedy for the deadlock over Brexit. But going to the voters is a risky proposition for both parties — one that had divided Johnson’s advisers, as well as the Labor Party rank-and-file, because it could lead to unforeseen outcomes.
Labor Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has said he wants a general election but only when the risk of Britain leaving the EU without an agreement has been taken off the table.
That could happen as soon as today, if the EU agrees to the request made by Johnson, under duress last week, to extend the Brexit deadline to
Jan. 31. But for now the Labor Party is not saying whether it will agree to Johnson’s push for a Dec. 12 election.
Meanwhile, UK police and politicians have sounded alarms about what could happen in Northern Ireland under Johnson’s proposed Brexit deal, with the region’s police chief warning that a badly handled divorce from the European Union could mean a return of violence in the streets.
Police have long warned that if Britain’s departure from the EU imposes a hard border between the UK’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland, that could embolden Irish Republican Army splinter groups who are opposed to Northern Ireland’s peace process and power-sharing government.
Simon Byrne, chief constable of the Northern Ireland police service, told the BBC that there also was potential for unrest among Northern Ireland’s pro-British loyalist community. He said, depending on how Brexit unfolded, there could be “a lot of emotion in loyalist communities and the potential for civil disorder.”
The invisible Irish border now underpins both the regional economy and the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
The Brexit divorce deal struck last week contains measures to keep the Irish border open. But the plan has been condemned by Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, an ally of Johnson’s Conservatives. The party says the agreement’s proposal to keep Northern Ireland in line with EU goods and customs regulations would impose new checks and friction between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Johnson’s Conservative government acknowledges that “administrative procedures, including a declaration will be required” on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland after Brexit, but it says they would be minimal.
Democratic Unionist Party lawmaker Nigel Dodds warned Thursday that the British government risked undermining “the political institutions and political stability in Northern Ireland by what you are doing to the unionist community.”
“Please wake up and realize what is happening here,” he told the House of Commons. “We need to get our heads together here and look at a way forward that can solve this problem. Don’t plow ahead regardless, I urge you.”