PM's bid for early election to be blocked鈥� for now
Following a conference call, opposition MPs once again agree not to support the PM's demand to go to the polls on 15 October.
Saturday 7 September 2019 04:46, UK
Opposition party leaders have agreed to once again block Boris Johnson's demand for a snap general election, meaning the UK is unlikely to head to the polls before November.
Following a conference call on Friday morning, hosted by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the parties agreed not to support the prime minister's call to go to the polls on 15 October.
They will therefore vote against a parliamentary motion the government are planning to table on Monday, meaning Mr Johnson's fifth defeat in the House of Commons now looms.
The prime minister has demanded a snap election after opposition MPs - helped by a group of Conservative rebels - successfully passed legislation to block a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.
This will compel Mr Johnson to seek a fresh three-month delay to Brexit, until 31 January 2020, if he cannot strike a new withdrawal agreement with the EU next month.
The legislation was approved by the House of Lords on Friday, paving the way for it to formally become law next week.
After the parties' talks, Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts revealed preventing the UK leaving the EU without a deal was their "number one priority"
She told Sky News: "Boris Johnson is on the run. He's going to start behaving very soon like a rat in a trap.
"We will only strengthen him if we allow him to have an early election and by strengthening him and giving him an early election, we will enable a no-deal Brexit," Ms Saville Roberts added.
She also revealed that her "understanding" from the talks was that "whenever a general election is enabled, the polling date has to be after 31 October".
The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford told Sky News parties wanted to ensure Mr Johnson "does what he's mandated to do" and seek an extension to the Article 50 negotiating period - therefore delaying Brexit.
A Liberal Democrat spokeswoman said their 16 MPs "won't vote for a general election until we have an extension agreed with the EU".
"I think the others are coming round to that," she added. "As a group we will all vote against or abstain on Monday."
A Labour Party spokesperson said: "Jeremy Corbyn hosted a positive conference call with other opposition party leaders this morning.
"They discussed advancing efforts to prevent a damaging no-deal Brexit and hold a general election once that is secured."
The prime minister has claimed he would "rather be dead in a ditch" than ask for a delay to Brexit.
During a visit to Scotland on Friday, Mr Johnson declined to say whether he would resign if he can't deliver Brexit on 31 October, as he has repeatedly promised.
He said: "That is not a hypothesis I'm willing to contemplate. I want us to get this thing done and I think the people of this country also do.
"There's an opportunity to be so much more positive about all this. I still think there's so much negativity around about this country, about what it can do and about Brexit.
"I'm looking forward to a Britain where we no longer wrangle about how exactly we're going to come out of the EU."
The Conservative Party used its Twitter account on Friday to brand Mr Corbyn a "chicken" following his refusal to support a snap general election.
Alongside a mocked-up photo of the Labour leader in a chicken costume, it added "JFC" and "totally spineless chicken".
But the spoof advert came under attack from ex-Tory minister Alistair Burt, who was effectively expelled from the party this week for rebelling against the government, who posted: "Please stop this stuff. We are better than this."
Former Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi also criticised "silly playground behaviour", adding: "What has become of this great party of ours."
The Conservative press office also distributed chicken breasts in "JFC" branding to political journalists working in parliament.
A bruising week has left the prime minister apparently stuck between his promise to take the UK out of the EU on 31 October and his inability to force a general election, while he has also seen his brother resign from his government and been criticised by top police officers.
However, Mr Johnson did receive some good news on Friday when the High Court rejected a legal challenge against the prime ministers five-week suspension of parliament.
The case was brought by anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller and had been joined by former prime minister Sir John Major, as well as Labour and the Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson.
Campaigners had urged judges at the High Court in London to find that the decision to prorogue parliament for an "exceptional" length of time was an "unlawful abuse of power".
The court rejected the challenge but allowed the case to be appealed in the Supreme Court, likely to be on 17 September.
Ms Miller said: "Today we stand for everyone, we stand for the future generations and we stand for representative democracy.
"To give up now would be a dereliction of our responsibility."