Brexit: UK opposition to vote against second snap poll vote
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Friday 06 Sep 2019
(Sharecast News) - UK opposition parties said they would not support a motion for a snap general election if it was tabled by the government on Monday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been goading Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn into agreeing to an early poll after losing control of the Brexit process and his plan to take Britain out of the European Union without a deal on October 31.
On Friday, both Labour and the Scottish National Party said they would not allow Johnson to dictate the timing of any election.
Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said Johnson could not be trusted to ensure that no-deal had been ruled out before going to the polls.
"The problem that we have is that ... if we vote to have a general election, then no matter what it is that Boris Johnson promises, it is up to him to advise the Queen when the general election should be," she told the BBC.
"And given that he has shown himself to be a manifest liar, and someone who has said that he will die in a ditch rather than stop no deal ... our first priority has to be that we must stop no deal and we must make sure that that is going to happen."
Thornberry's views were echoed by SNP leader Ian Blackford who said he wanted an election, but only after a crash out had been averted.
"Boris Johnson doesn't have a majority in parliament so the idea that he is coming with a motion to try and force an election having lost one this week is insane," he told Sky News.
"He is not going to compel parliamentarians to give him a mandate to determine the timing - we don't trust him. We'll determine the timing of this, not Boris Johnson."
In the first sitting parliamentary week after the summer recess, Johnson has lost his majority, four votes in the Commons, 21 moderate MPs and the trust of his brother who quit the government and said he would stand down as an MP citing familial Brext tensions.
Rebel Tory MPs voted with the opposition to push through a Bill that would stop Johnson from forcing through a no-deal Brexit.
The legislation, expected to receive final approval on Monday, would force the prime minister to seek a deal with the EU at the leaders meeting on October 17 or ask for a Brexit delay until January 31.
Johnson has refused to countenance any sort of extension, on Thursday saying in a rambling speech that he would rather be "dead in a ditch" than ask for an extension.
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