Having suddenly lost his parliamentary majority earlier today, and having accused opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of intentionally weakening the UK’s hand in Brexit negotiations, Boris Johnson (BoJo) just suffered – as expected – another setback as the UK parliament voted to seize control of parliamentary business (and negate BoJo’s prorogue).
The ayes win by 328 votes to 301.
Johnson raged:
“Parliament is on the brink of wrecking any deal that we might get.”
Rebel UK lawmakers now aim to pass legislation that would force Johnson to delay Brexit if he hasn’t reached a deal with EU leaders in Brussels (implicitly blocking a no-deal Brexit).
However, BoJo has said he will try to trigger a snap election (the country’s third in just over four years) for Oct. 14 if he lost control of the agenda, and now that he has, we will have to see how the process evolves. Notably, Johnson’s office doubled-down on a threat to expel any Tory who votes against the government tonight – saying even those who abstain will be ejected. However, as one rebel (Dominic Grieve) noted, it’s not going to work:
“If he thinks that the device of withdrawing the whip this evening is going to change my mind or that of my honorable and right honorable friends he has got another thing coming, because it will be treated with the contempt it deserves.”
And as we have seen, it didn’t. The question now is – will BoJo eject all the rebels.
As Bloomberg details, BoJo needs the votes of two-thirds of MPs to trigger an election — 434 of them. His government includes only 311 — even fewer if he starts throwing out rebels, as he’s threatened to do. Making up the difference should be straightforward: The opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose socialist agenda roils financial markets, has been asking for an election since he narrowly lost the last one in June 2017.
The pound is stable for now…
Source: Bloomberg
We look forward to Nigel Farage’s reponse!
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2PGiokG Tyler Durden