Betrayal? Boris Johnson Suffers Defeat as British Political Class Try to Delay Brexit
Jose Nino
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was dealt a noticeable defeat on Tuesday, September 4, 2019 when Parliament blocked him from carrying out a “no-deal” Brexit.
After this vote, The Hill reports that Johnson called for new elections, which must receive the approval of a two-third majority in the House of Commons in order for them to be called.
This call for new elections came right after the House of Commons passed a bill which allowed members of Parliament to introduce legislation forcing Johnson to request a three-month extension from the EU if a deal is not struck by October 31, the deadline which the prime minister set for Brexit.
Johnson had declared that he would have Britain leave the EU without a deal and was seeking to cut the amount of time Parliament spent debating Brexit. The prime minister’s attempt to cut debate was widely criticized as being anti-democratic.
The Guardian reported that the bill passed by 328 to 301 vote, marking Johnson’s first defeat in a House of Commons vote as prime minister.
Video footage caught a Labour Party member shouting “not a good start, Boris.”
21 members of Johnson’s Conservative Party joined opposition members in voting for this bill.
Despite the calls for a new election, the opposing Labour Party has not offered anything resembling a united front on this issue.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn stated that he wanted legislation passed which guarantees that a “no-deal” Brexit would not take place before new elections commence.
“Let’s see what happens after this legislation has gone through,” Corbyn told reporters Tuesday after talks with other parties.
Corbyn also declared that if an election was called, he would be “absolutely ready to fight it.”
In the case that a snap election is called, it would be the third time in five years that British citizens vote in a general election.
Johnson’s defeat came hours after the Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority when Phillip Lee joined Liberal Democrats.
As the days go by, Brexit’s fate hangs in the balance.
After voting to leave the EU for diverse reasons — from the effects of EU’s mass migration policies to the EU’s increasing bureaucratic overreach — ,Britain’s political class is not interested in respecting the will of its voters.
These delays only serve to make sure that a genuine Brexit never happens.
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