The prime minister may not even be able to call a snap election before asking the EU to delay Brexit. MPs may leave him to stew in his own juice. This would be a fitting position for a rotten, dishonest and arrogant government to find itself in.
Tonight MPs voted by 328 to 301 votes to grab control of Parliamentary business from the government. No fewer than 21 Tory MPs including an array of former Cabinet ministers – voted against the government. They look set to follow that up by passing emergency legislation tomorrow to force Boris Johnson to ask the EU to postpone Brexit by three months until the end of January.
The prime minister has suffered such a hammer blow because of his own foolish actions – and those of his key advisors. MPs were rightly indignant that he is seeking to gag Parliament by suspending it for five key weeks.
Conservatives were also furious that he threatened to expel from the party anybody who voted against him – despite the fact that he himself twice rebelled against Theresa May.
Meanwhile, Michael Gove even hinted that the government might break the law if Parliament forced him to ask the EU for extra time. Johnson had to eat those words today, admitting through gritted teeth that he would obey the law.
The prime minister had a ghastly day. A Scottish court heard that he had secretly okayed the decision to suspend Parliament two weeks before he even informed the Queen that this is what he wanted. No sooner had he stood up in the House of Commons than one of his own MPs, Phillip Lee, ostentatiously crossed the floor and joined the Lib Dems.
Meanwhile, Johnson was exposed by rifle shots from across the Commons – in part because of a bombshell of article in the Telegraph which gave a lie to his claim that he was making progress in negotiations with the EU. The Telegraph said the attorney-general had told the prime minister that it was “fantasy” to think he could persuade the EU to drop the Irish “backstop”; and that Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s key advisor, had said the negotiations were a “sham”.
The prime minister now says he’s going to try to call an election if MPs pass the law tomorrow. But Corbyn has wisely said he won’t agree until the law is on the statute books – and without Labour’s approval there won’t be an election.
The leader of the opposition should go even further and say he won’t agree an election until the extension is actually in the bag. That would really force Johnson to stew in his own juice.
The spelling of Phillip Lee was corrected shortly after publication