Boris Johnson loses bid for snap election to break Brexit deadlock
He says the move by some MPs to pass a bill to delay no-deal through the Commons in a day "left no other option" than a poll.
Thursday 5 September 2019 08:54, UK
Boris Johnson has lost a bid to call an early general election to break the Brexit deadlock.
The prime minister said a snap poll was needed after MPs successfully passed legislation to try to block no-deal through the Commons in a single day.
MPs voted by 298 to 56 for an early election, but many abstained, meaning the number Mr Johnson needed - 434 - was not achieved.
Mr Johnson hinted afterwards he could try again, telling Labour MPs to "reflect on what I think is the unsustainability of this position overnight and in the course of the next few days".
He added Jeremy Corbyn had become "the first opposition leader in the democratic history of our country to refuse the invitation to an election".
Clashing in the Commons as Mr Johnson tried to win the two-thirds of MPs' support he needs for an early election, he said of the Labour leader: "He has demanded an election for two years while blocking Brexit.
"He said only two days ago that he would support an election and now parliament, having passed a bill that destroys the ability of government to negotiate, is he now going to say that the public can't be allowed an election to decide which of us sorts out this mess?"
He added he was "very sad" that MPs had voted to try to delay no-deal in a "great dereliction of their democratic duty".
Mr Corbyn hit back, saying: "A general election isn't a play thing for a prime minister to avoid his obligations, to dodge scrutiny or renege on commitments.
"He has committed to renegotiate Brexit, but where is it? Where is the plan, where are the proposals?"
He also attacked an "undemocratic cabal in Downing Street" for trying to "override the democratic will of this House".
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said the best way of resolving the deadlock was another referendum, but promised she would back an election if Brexit was delayed to stop the threat of no-deal "either during the campaign or in the immediate aftermath".
While Ian Blackford, who heads the Scottish National Party in Westminster, added he would not push for an election now to be "party to the prime minister's games" and to let him "force a no-deal Brexit through the back door".
Despite the Commons drama ending for the night, pro-Brexit peers are gearing up for an all-night sitting to stop the draft law to delay no-deal being debated and voted on tomorrow and on Friday.
It includes the promise of a future vote on a version of Theresa May's Brexit deal.
One source told Sky News the Lib Dems had organised a film screening to "keep people entertained" and that the party's chief whip had brought their pillow into work.
Splits over the legislation caused 21 Tory MPs to rebel yesterday and be blocked from representing the party in parliament or as its candidates at the next election.
Mr Johnson has already used the move to call for an election, earlier during his first Prime Minister's Questions branding Mr Corbyn a "chlorinated chicken".
The prime minister also swore, when he repeated the words of shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, who previously described her own party's "high-risk" economic strategy as "s***-or-bust".
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, a Labour MP, also won applause in the Commons chamber for demanding Mr Johnson apologise for calling Muslim women "bank robbers and letterboxes".
He later told Sky News: "I know what it's like to be called a letterbox."
Chancellor Sajid Javid was also chastised by Commons Speaker John Bercow for being out of order for "veering" into topics other than the economy in his spending review speech delivered on Tuesday.