BRITAIN’S TORIES IN TATTERS

LABOUR BLOCKS PM’S PLAN FOR SNAP ELECTION

Johnson loses bid for early vote

Aday after suffering a devastating defeat in Parliament, Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced another in the House of Commons on Wednesday as the Labour Party blocked his plans for a snap general election and pushed through legislation seeking to avoid a no-deal Brexit.

On another day of high drama in the Commons, the prime minister suggested the Labour leader was “frit” because he feared a heavy defeat if and when the country had its say.

“He has demanded an election for two years by blocking Brexit. He said two days ago he would support an election. Is he now going to say that the public cannot be allowed an election to decide which of us sorts out this mess?” said Johnson, accusing Jeremy Corbyn of being “chicken.”

Corbyn insisted he would only back an election once Parliament had passed into law the bill to block a nodeal Brexit on Oct. 31, which passed through the Commons by 327 votes to 299 — helped by 21 Tory rebels — and now moves to the House of Lords.

Peers were expected to sit through the night as Conservative lords plotted to filibuster the bill to prevent it passing before Parliament is prorogued.

But the House of Lords is overwhelmingly pro-eu, and the bill is expected to pass in the end.

Johnson then suffered a third defeat as MPS voted against his call for an early election, on Oct. 15. Under the rules, he needed a twothirds majority but fell 136 votes short as Labour refused to agree to it.

These defeats could be crippling for the prime minister, who is just six weeks into his term and has staked his job on his ability to deliver Brexit.

“It’s the shortest honeymoon in British political history,” said Jon Tonge, a politics professor at the University of Liverpool, who said Johnson is essentially in government, but not in power. “Boris Johnson is in a terrible mess.”

The prime minister is now expected to table another vote on a general election on Monday, but Labour is plotting to “destroy” him by forcing a Brexit extension beyond Oct. 31 and delaying an election until November.

Senior Labour figures including Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, favour keeping Johnson in Downing Street until Oct 19, when the bill, if it becomes law, would force him to ask the EU for an extension to Article 50 if he has failed to strike a new Brexit deal that

is agreed by Parliament.

With Johnson’s options narrowing by the day, he repeated once again that there were “no circumstances” in which he would ask for an extension. He insisted he would not resign but would “find a way” to fulfil his promise of leaving the EU on Oct 31.

However, for the first time he raised the prospect that he could soon be out of office, saying: “If I am still prime minister on Tuesday, Oct. 15, then we will leave on Oct. 31 with, I hope, a much better deal.”

Wednesday night he received a vote of confidence from Donald Trump, who said he “knows how to win.” Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said: “Well, Boris is a friend of mine and he’s going at it. There’s no question about it. He’s in there. I watched him this morning. He’s in there fighting and he knows how to win. Boris knows how to win.”

But it was Johnson’s frustration on display in the Commons Wednesday. He uttered “shit,” a word not usually heard in public from prime ministers. He also taunted Corbyn, calling him a “chlorinated chicken” and mouthing what appeared to be “a great big girl’s blouse.”

Corbyn shot back: “If the prime minister does to the country what he has done

IF I AM STILL PRIME MINISTER ON … OCT. 15, THEN WE WILL LEAVE ON OCT. 31.

to his party in the past 24 hours, I think a lot of people have a great deal to fear from his incompetence and his vacillation.”

Away from the Commons, Labour was locked in an internal power struggle Wednesday night as its MPS continued to squabble over when and how an election should happen.

Corbyn’s spokesman confirmed that one option being considered was toppling Johnson in a confidence vote next week before installing Corbyn in Downing Street, delaying Brexit and calling an election in November. Labour backbenchers “overwhelmingly” told Corbyn at a meeting that they favoured an election after Oct. 31, according to Wes Streeting, a Labour MP.

Corbyn’s spokesman confirmed that Labour’s next election manifesto would pledge a second referendum with Remain as one of the choices along with a Labour Brexit deal.