Boris Johnson announces he will seek to trigger snap general election following MP's vote
Boris Johnson has announced that he will seek to trigger a snap general election after losing a crunch vote on Brexit.
The British Prime Minister said he would table a motion under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act on Tuesday night.
Mr Johnson told the House of Commons after he was defeated in his first vote: “The consequences of this vote tonight means that Parliament is on the brink of wrecking any deal that we might be able to get in Brussels.
“It will hand control of the negotiations to the EU.”
He continued: “I don’t want an election but if MPs vote tomorrow to stop the negotiations and to compel another pointless delay of Brexit, potentially for years, then that will be the only way to resolve this.
“I can confirm that tonight we will are tabling a motion under the Fixed-term Parliament Act.”
Moments earlier MPs voted in favour of allowing a cross-party alliance to take control of the Commons agenda on Wednesday in a bid to block a no-deal Brexit on October 31 by 328 votes to 301, majority 27.
Analysis of the Commons division list showed 21 Tories rebelled to support the motion.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said told the Prime Minister: “He wants to table a motion for a general election, fine.
“Get the Bill through first in order to take no deal off the table.”
The move would require the Prime Minister to seek a delay to Brexit until January 31 2020 if no agreement has been reached, and MPs have not approved a no-deal withdrawal.
Commons Speaker John Bercow gave the green light for the cross-party alliance to launch their attempt on Tuesday to seize control of the House’s business for the following day.
Boris Johnson earlier signalled he would try to call a snap general election if he was defeated, and has said the legislation would “destroy any chance” of negotiating an agreement.
Boris Johnson said Britain's Parliament was “on the brink of wrecking any deal” with Brussels after MPs voted in favour of giving a cross-party alliance control of the Commons agenda tomorrow.
It came after Mr Johnson’s working majority in the Commons was wiped out when former minister Phillip Lee dramatically defected to the Liberal Democrats.
