As MPs prepare to legislate against a no-deal Brexit, Boris Johnson considers calling an election to thwart them
BRITAIN’S HOUSE OF COMMONS returns to work on September 3rd for what promises to be a politically explosive week that could even presage a general election. It will start with MPs who are opposed to leaving the European Union with no deal demanding an emergency debate, which the Speaker, John Bercow, is likely to grant.
Boris Johnson, the prime minister, has a working majority of just one. As many as 40 Tory rebels are publicly opposed to a no-deal Brexit. On the face of it, this suggests that a law against no-deal should have the numbers to pass. Yet Mr Johnson has not given up hopes of stopping it.
The prime minister has two more options if MPs succeed, despite his best efforts, in passing an anti-no-deal law. The first is in effect to ignore the law, perhaps by making any request to the EU so unpalatable that it is rejected . The second is to threaten to hold an election before October 31st, which he would fight under the banner of “the people versus Parliament”. In his statement on September 2nd Mr Johnson declared that he does not want an election, but the threat remains.
The EU is watching these manoeuvres with alarm. It has no desire to see a disruptive no-deal Brexit, which would damage other EU countries as well as Britain. Yet it is not about to concede Mr Johnson’s main demand by dumping the Irish backstop, an insurance policy to avert a hard border with Ireland by keeping Britain in a customs union. EU governments are sceptical about any alternative arrangements to the backstop, and they note that Mr Johnson has not even put forward a concrete proposal.
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