Brexit votes result: Boris Johnson suffers double defeat as MPs reject election bid and back bill to block no-deal

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Boris Johnson has suffered a double Commons defeat with MPs backing a bill to block a no deal exit from the EU - and then rejecting his move to trigger a snap General Election.

Just a day after Opposition and rebel Tory MPs seized control of the Commons agenda, they passed legislation by 327 votes to 299, to compel the Prime Minister to ask Brussels for a delay to Brexit.

Immediately afterwards, Mr Johnson said an election “must now” be held on October 15.

He told MPs: “I think it’s very sad that MPs have voted like this, I do, I think it’s a great dereliction of their democratic duty.

“But if I’m still Prime Minister after Tuesday October 15 then we will leave on October 31 with, I hope, a much better deal.”

Double defeat: Boris Johnson's bid for a general election was crushed after MPs backed a bill aimed at blocking no-deal
AFP/Getty Images

But Mr Johnson failed to get two thirds of MPs to back an election being held, a threshold needed under the 2011 Fixed Term Parliaments Act.

Hundreds of MPs abstained in the vote, with 298 voting in favour and 56 against.

Mr Johnson accused Jeremy Corbyn of wanting to “stop the people from voting”, adding: “He has become, to my knowledge, the first leader of the opposition in the democratic history of our country to refuse the invitation to an election.”

However, opposition parties are wary of falling into a “trap” they suspect the Government is laying to mothball Parliament with an election in order to get no deal through.

The Labour leader stressed that the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill must be passed through the Lords and have received Royal Assent before he will entertain the thought of a general election.

He likened Mr Johnson’s offer of a general election on Tuesday October 15 to “the offer of a poisoned apple to Snow White by a wicked queen”.

He added: “The Prime Minister says he has a strategy but he can’t say what it is and can’t tell the EU either - the truth is that there really is nothing there.”

Following an apparent parliamentary sleight of hand by the Government, an amendment seeking to give MPs a vote on Theresa May’s final Brexit deal was also passed.

The “rebel alliance” will seek to have it axed from the bill in the Lords but it could cause a delay to attempts to pass the legislation.

The Commons setbacks for the Government came after the Tory civil war deepened, with Mr Johnson hit with a backlash over his decision to bar 21 MPs from standing as Conservative MPs at the next election.

He also faced anger from MPs over the conduct of his No10 chief adviser Dominic Cummings with one veteran Tory branding him “an unelected foul-mouthed oaf”.

Tory former Cabinet minister Dame Caroline Spelman became the latest MP to rebel against the Government, when she backed the anti-no deal bill, but will not have the party whip withdrawn as it was not being treated as a “confidence” matter.

The Prime Minister has vowed that Britain will leave the European Union “do or die” by October 31.

But the new law would force him to ask for a delay unless he could get a new deal, backed by the Commons, or MPs to support a no deal departure.

Mr Johnson has declared he will not request an extension.

Opposition leaders and MPs are locked in talks over the timing of an election - and whether it should take place after October 31 to ensure the Prime Minister is unable to force Britain out of the EU without a deal.

Labour MPs are piling pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to adopt such a strategy.

The anti-no deal bill will now be considered in the Lords where Tory MPs are expected to seek to kill it off with an avalanche of more than 100 amendments.

But Opposition peers were prepared for all-night sittings to pass it.

Downing Street spokesman said the PM would not resign to force the country to head to the polls if the Government loses the election vote, telling a Westminster briefing: “He’s not going to step down. He wants an election.

“We will find a way to deliver on what the British people want, which is to deliver Brexit by October 31.”

Mr Johnson removed the whip from 21 Conservative MPs after they voted against the Government in order to allow time for the backbench Bill to be debated on Wednesday.

Those sacked include former Chancellor Philip Hammond, David Gauke and Rory Stewart - all of whom were serving in Theresa May’s Cabinet just weeks ago. Party stalwarts Ken Clarke, Father of the House, and Sir Nicholas Soames, Winston Churchill’s grandson, were also dismissed.

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said on Twitter: “How, in the name of all that is good and holy, is there no longer room in the Conservative Party for @NSoames? #anofficerandagentleman.”

Former Tory Party chairman Lord Kenneth Baker said: “These 21 MPs are not parvenus seeking to infiltrate the party, they are lifelong Tories in their mind and in their bones.”

He warned the party owes its success to being a broad church which had kept policy decisions out of the hands of “swivel-eyed ideologues”, and called for the 21 to be allowed to stand again for the Conservatives at the next election.

But Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng defended the action.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is a shame - a lot of them are very talented people. But you cannot have people standing as Conservative MPs when they are against the Government’s policy on the key issue of the day.”

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