- Boris Johnson last night lost a massive Commons showdown as Remainer MPs try to block a No Deal Brexit
- Some 21 Tory MPs joined the revolt to inflict a stinging defeat on the government by 328 votes to just 301
- Mr Johnson warned he will never ask the EU for an extension beyond the Brexit deadline of October 31
- He instead called for a general election to be held on October 15, a day later than had been earlier mooted
- Mr Johnson’s plan must be backed by two-thirds of MPs, but the support of Labour is by no means guaranteed
- Jeremy Corbyn was accused of ‘running scared’ of the public after refusing to confirm he would back a vote
- Rebel Tory ex-ministers Justine Greening and Alistair Burt announced they will stand down at the election
Boris Johnson blasted Jeremy Corbyn for plotting a ‘surrender’ to the EU today as the Labour leader prepares to block his demand for a snap election.
A furious PM accused Mr Corbyn of trying to condemn the UK to ‘years of uncertainty and delay’ as he gears up for another extraordinary showdown in the Commons.
Mr Johnson has called for a snap poll so the ‘people can decide’ after Remainers seized control of Parliament in a bid to rule out No Deal.
But the premier needs agreement from two-thirds of the Commons to trigger a national ballot.
And despite spending years demanding an election, Mr Corbyn has insisted he will stop one happening until legislation has been passed guaranteeing that the UK cannot crash out.
The decision – described as the ‘mother of all U-turns’ by ministers – leaves the country in limbo, with Mr Johnson now unable to control the House – but also powerless to return to the electorate.
The premier gathered his Cabinet in Downing Street today as they frantically try to plot a way through the burgeoning crisis.
And Mr Johnson tweeted his determination to push ahead with Brexit. ‘Corbyn and his surrender bill would mean years of uncertainty and delay. I am determined to lead this country forward and take Britain out of the EU on October 31st,’ he said.
The latest shocking developments began when Mr Johnson lost a crunch vote at around 10pm, giving a rebel alliance control of Commons business with the aim of passing a law to stop the UK crashing out of the EU at the end of October, by an unexpectedly large margin of 328 to 301.
Some 21 Tory MPs – including eight former Cabinet ministers – defied threats of deselection to side with the Opposition over Brexit.
The politicians, including veteran Ken Clarke and Winston Churchill’s grandson Sir Nicholas Soames, have now been brutally axed from the Conservatives, effectively ending their careers.
But the tough move means Mr Johnson’s numbers in the Commons are disastrously low, far short of an overall majority and completely unsustainable.
As well as the internal reprisals, Mr Johnson responded seconds after the vote by declaring he will call a snap election rather than accept the ‘surrender Bill’, with the date pencilled in for October 15.
However he faces an uphill battle to get his plan through the Commons tonight, as the law dictates that two-thirds of MPs must agree to hold an early election.
Mr Corbyn shouted at Mr Johnson across the despatch box last night: ‘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.’
And shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said during a round of interviews: ‘We are not voting for a general election today.
‘We are not dancing to Boris Johnson’s tune. If Johnson says the election will be on 15 October no one trusts him.’
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured leaving his London home today) faced accusations of ‘running scared’ of a general election today as he prepares to block a bold bid by Boris Johnson (right being driven away from Parliament) to break the Brexit deadlock with a snap poll
No Deal minister Michael Gove (left), housing minister Esther McVey (centre) and Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay (right) seemed in good spirits as he arrived in Downing Street today despite the mounting chaos
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg (left) and Trade Secretary Liz Truss were among the ministers attending an emergency Cabinet meeting in No10 this morning
Mr Johnson tweeted today to underline his vow to secure Brexit by the end of October despite the Remainer revolt
The rebel legislation and the PM’s bid to force an early general election are both on the Commons order paper today
Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said Mr Corbyn was ‘perverse’ and ‘frightened’.
‘What is very clear to me is the leader of the opposition has said consistently that he wants a general election and it is perverse of him to say now that he doesn’t want one, and it appears to me he is rather frightened of a general election,’ he told Today.
‘We have had three years of this debate and we have gone round and round, and it may well be that a general election is the best way forward and the only way to solve the impasse.’
The staggering blow last night came in the first vote of Mr Johnson’s premiership. ‘Not a good start, Boris!’ shouted one Labour MP as the result came in.
And the punishment that follow for rebels was described by one government source as a ‘Remainer bloodbath’.
Former International Development Secretary Rory Stewart called the decision to throw him out of the party ‘astonishing’ and said it was something ‘you associate with other countries’ rather than Britain.
He received the news of his sacking as he was being given the GQ award for politician of the year.
‘It came by text,’ the Penrith and the Border MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. ‘It was a pretty astonishing moment. Remember, only a few weeks ago I was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party against Boris Johnson and I was in the Cabinet. And it has all gone very quickly in six weeks.
‘It feels a little bit like something you associate with other countries – one opposes the leader, one loses the leadership race, no longer in the cabinet and now apparently thrown out of the party and one’s seat too.’
Mr Stewart said there were ’30 or 40′ other Tories who had been wanting to block No Deal but were cowed into backing the PM by the deselection threats.
Yesterday’s victory for pro-EU MPs came despite Mr Johnson threatening to end the careers of Tories who joined the revolt by deselecting them.
Speaking after the result, Mr Johnson said Parliament was ‘on the brink of wrecking’ the Brexit negotiations.
‘The people are going to have to choose,’ he said last night. ‘I can confirm tonight we are tabling a motion under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act.’
The scale of the Tory rebellion was larger than many had expected at Westminster, with the ‘aggressive’ government tactics failing to whittle down numbers.
The combative attitude of Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg during the debate on the business motion seemed to infuriate many who were wavering.
Former minister Guto Bebb said he believed Mr Rees-Mogg cost the government at least four votes.
‘There were at least four individuals who were still doubtful who changed their position to being supportive and voting with us on the back of Jacob’s performance,’ he told Sky News. ‘He was deemed to be arrogant, out of touch and I think the way in which he treated some of the interventions was a red rag to bull in many cases.’
The roll call of rebels included ex-Chancellor Mr Hammond, who has already vowed to fight efforts to deselect him, as well as former ministers Justine Greening and Alistair Burt – who both pre-empted their punishments earlier by announcing they would be standing down at the election.
Other Cabinet veterans were Sir Oliver Letwin, Dominic Grieve, Mr Clarke, Greg Clark, Rory Stewart, and Caroline Nokes. Sir Nicholas Soames, grandson of Winston Churchill, also rebelled.
A Downing Street spokesman said last night: ‘The Chief Whip is speaking with those Tory MPs who did not vote with the Government this evening. They will have the whip removed.’
A rebel source said No10 was ‘removing the whip from two former chancellors, a former lord chancellor and Winston Churchill’s grandson’.
‘What has has happened to the Conservative Party?’ they added.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured in the Commons last night, has made clear he will block an election until No Deal has been ruled out
Furious Boris Johnson (pictured last night in the Commons) has called for a snap election after rebel MPs seized control of the house by 328 to 301
It was a frustrating session for Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night, as the Prime Minister was left furious while his predecessor Theresa May watched on from the backbenches
Pictured are the Tory rebels who are now facing the sack after voting against Boris Johnson. (Left to right top row) David Gauke, Alistair Burt, Stephen Hammond, Philip Hammond, Margot James, Ken Clarke and Caroline Nokes. (Left to right middle row) Rory Stewart, Anne Milton, Richard Harrington, Guto Bebb, Antoinette Sandbach, Sam Gyimah and Justine Greening. (Left to right bottom row) Richard Benyon, Steve Brine, Greg Clark, Dominic Grieve, Ed Vaizey , Nicholas Soames and Oliver Letwin
The bitter Tory civil war exploded after frantic developments yesterday including:
- Former Tory minister Phillip Lee dramatically stripped the government’s majority by crossing the floor of the chamber to defect to the Lib Dems while Mr Johnson was speaking;
- Mr Johnson was embroiled in a bitter clash with Mr Hammond during ‘peace talks’ at No10 during which he accused him of trying to ‘hand power over to a Junta that includes Jeremy Corbyn’;
- Nigel Farage said there will be no Brexit pact with the Tories unless Mr Johnson explicitly adopts No Deal as his policy;
- Opposition MPs applauded Speaker John Bercow as he ridiculed the Prime Minister ‘do or die’ pledge to secure Brexit by October 31;
- Downing Street delayed the planned election by a day after being warned that October 14 clashed with a Jewish holiday;
- Brexiteer peers tabled 90 amendments to the rebel Bill as they geared up to try and filibuster when it reaches the Upper House later this week;
After the result was declaring in a hushed Commons chamber last night, a clearly angry PM rose to his feet to condemn the decision.
‘Let there be no doubt about the consequences of this vote tonight,’ he said.
‘It means that parliament is on the brink of wrecking any deal we might be able to strike in Brussels.
‘Because tomorrow’s Bill would hand control of the negotiations to the EU. And that would mean more dither, more delay, more confusion.
‘And it would mean that the EU themselves would be able decide how long to keep this country In the EU.
And since I refuse to go along with that plan, we are going to have to make a choice.
‘I don’t want an election. The public don’t want an election. But if the House votes for this Bill tomorrow, the public will have to choose who goes to Brussels on Oct 17 to sort this out and take this country forward.’
Mr Corbyn said: ‘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.’
Dame Margaret Hodge and his shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry appeared to back his position.
Dame Margaret said: ‘I will not be supporting a snap general election because it is nothing more than a trap set by the most untrustworthy PM in living memory.
‘This is just part of Johnson’s ploy to get a No Deal Brexit over the line regardless of the disastrous consequences. We must reject it.’
Emily Thornberry then added: ‘There’s not going to be a general election tomorrow, because we’re not going to vote for it.’
But Labour backbencher John Mann was outraged, tweeting: ‘Oh these clever people. Let’s spit on the working class and a majority of the electorate. Stop Brexit.
‘Then ask them to vote us into power. We are dealing with people who don’t respect the views of the people.’
Earlier, sources close to shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said the party was looking at ‘mechanisms’ that could bind the PM to a specific election date.
During another day of high drama in Westminster, former minister Phillip Lee crossed the floor in the Commons and joined the Lib Dems.
As the PM was struggling to defend his Brexit stance in the chamber, Dr Lee walked away from his colleagues and went to sit with Jo Swinson’s pro-EU party.
Kicking off the debate in Parliament yesterday, former Cabinet minister Sir Oliver Letwin insisted that the ‘threat’ of No Deal was not a ‘credible negotiating strategy’.
He said it was ‘decision time’ for MPs and they had to take their ‘last chance’ to stop the UK from crashing out.
‘Over the last six weeks the Government has not produced a single indication of any viable proposal to replace the backstop by any alternative likely to prove acceptable to the EU,’ Sir Oliver said.
‘The likelihood of the Government reaching a deal at the council meeting on October 17 and 18 on the terms the Government itself has set is accordingly slight.’
He warned this was the last week Parliament will have to block a no-deal exit on October 31, noting: ‘It’s decision time.
‘If MPs across the House want to prevent a no-deal exit on October 31 they will have the opportunity to do so if, but only if, they vote for this motion this evening.’
But Mr Rees-Mogg barely bothered to disguise his anger as he took to the despatch box, saying the business motion tonight was a ‘subversion of democracy’.
He also swiped viciously at the Speaker for bending procedures to permit the move.
Mr Bercow was applauded by the House as he boasted about bending Commons rules to trigger a crunch vote.
Amid fury from Eurosceptics, he insisted he would keep ‘facilitating the House of Commons’.
In a reference to Mr Johnson’s solemn ‘do or die’ pledge to secure Brexit by Halloween, he said:
‘I’ve done it, I am doing it, I will continue to do it to the best of my ability without fear or favour – to coin a phrase, come what may, do or die.’
In a statement yesterday, Dr Lee said the ‘party I joined in 1992 is not the party I am leaving today’.
‘This Conservative government is aggressively pursuing a damaging Brexit in unprincipled ways,’ he said.
Losing his overall majority is a symbolic blow to the PM, although in reality the Brexit issue has been splitting party loyalties to such an extent that the challenges he faces are the same.
However, Mr Johnson was defiant as he addressed MPs before the vote.
Attacking Remainer plans to seize control of the Commons and pass legislation ruling out No Deal, Mr Johnson said: ‘It is Jeremy Corbyn’s surrender bill.’
In a stinging barb about the concessions to Brussels he added: ‘They would be able to keep us in the EU for as long as they like and on their terms.’
Mr Johnson stressed that there will be ‘no further pointless delay’ to Brexit.
‘Enough is enough. The country wants this done and they want the referendum respected,’ he said.
‘We are negotiating a deal and though I am confident of getting a deal, we will leave by October 31 in all circumstances.’
Prior to the defection the PM had an effective majority of just one.
Dr Lee switching sides made it a minority government – although the premier can also rely on the support of Charlie Elphicke, who is currently suspended from the Tory whip.
The axing of another 21 MPs who rebelled takes the government a long way into the red.
Prior to the introduction of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act in 2011, it would have been impossible for a government to survive in such circumstances.
But Mr Johnson’s problem is that Remainers want to wound him, but fear allowing an election would give him an opportunity to force No Deal.
Earlier, the PM met senior rebels including Mr Hammond and Mr Gauke ahead of the crucial vote.
But the discussion quickly descended into acrimony, with government sources accusing Mr Hammond of behaving ‘disrespectfully’ and ‘chuntering’.
The premier accused the former chancellor during the encounter of ‘handing power to a Junta including Jeremy Corbyn’ by backing the anti-No Deal legislation.
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson gloated about the new addition to her ranks. ‘Welcome @DrPhillipLeeMP – you have joined us at the most crucial time.
‘I look forward to working with you to prevent a disastrous Brexit, and to fight for a fairer, more equal society,’ she wrote on Twitter.
In a challenge to the PM, Mr Hammond was reselected in Runnymede and Weybridge by executive members of the Conservative Association at a private meeting on Monday night.
Earlier today he slammed the government’s ‘aggressive’ tactics, saying the PM will have the ‘fight of a lifetime’ if he tries to deselect him.
‘I am going to support the Bill… I think we have the numbers,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He also launched an excoriating attack on maverick No10 Brexit chief Dominic Cummings.
‘This is my party, I am going to defend my party against people who are at the heart of this government who care nothing about the future of the Conservative party,’ he said.
Allies of the PM said the rest of the group were ‘civil’ and ‘respectful’ during the meeting with the PM, but Mr Hammond ‘interrupted’ and ‘chuntered’.
Mr Johnson is said to have made very clear that he ‘would not tolerate’ the Bill. Rebels have accused Mr Johnson of using the election to try and ‘purge’ Tory opponents of No Deal and turn the party into a Eurosceptic vehicle.
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd yesterday warned against taking action against ‘very valued colleagues who made a very different choice’.
‘We should consider carefully the consequences of dividing the party. But I do support the PM in his commitment… to get a deal,’ she told reporters outside her London home.
To take effect the anti-No Deal legislation must clear all its Parliamentary stages and receive Royal Assent before the Houses prorogue for the party conference break – which is due to happen as early as next Monday.
In his appearance in yesterday afternoon, Mr Johnson conceded for the first time that he would be obliged to obey the law if it is passed.
‘We will of course uphold the constitution and obey the law,’ he said.
The primary aim of the so-called European Union (Withdrawal) (No.6) Bill 2019 is to stop the UK leaving the EU without a deal on October 31.
But it goes much further and demands the PM ask the EU for a Brexit delay to January 31 2020 in the event Britain and Brussels are unable to agree a new deal at an EU Council meeting on October 17.
The Bill states that if the EU does agree to the request for an extension the PM must immediately accept the offer.
If the EU propose a different extension date the PM must accept it within two days – unless it is rejected by the House of Commons.
The Bill does say that the UK can leave the bloc without a deal but only if MPs explicitly vote in favour of such an outcome.
Pictured: Boris Johnson speaks with arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg in the Commons last night, when the government suffered a blow to their agenda
The government last night lost a vote in Westminster which handed control of the House of Commons to an alliance of rebel MPs, leading to calls for a general election from Boris
The victory for pro-EU MPs – by a big margin of 328 to 301 – came despite Mr Johnson threatening to end the careers of Tories who joined the revolt by deselecting them
Sajid Javid (left), Boris Johnson (centre), and Dominic Raab (right) appeared glum-faced as they left the Commons last night following a defeat for the government
Former Prime Minister Theresa was spotted smiling as she left Parliament following a defeat for her successor, Boris Johnson, last night
Jeremy Hunt is pictured, left, leaving the Commons after last night’s vote as Rory Stewart, right, headed home from Parliament after attending the GQ Men of the Year Awards earlier in the evening
Noisy pro-EU protests were taking place outside the Houses of Parliament as the political drama unfolded last night
Protesters are pictured outside Parliament last night as Boris Johnson suffered defeat in the Commons and rebel MPs took control in Westminster
Day the PM lost his majority: Red face for Boris as MP defects as he delivers statement
By Claire Ellicott, Political Correspondent for the Daily Mail
Tory MP Phillip Lee crossed the floor of the House to join the Liberal Democrats in dramatic fashion yesterday, wiping out Boris Johnson’s Commons majority.
The shock move – which Downing Street had no advance warning of – happened just hours before the Government lost the crunch Brexit vote by 328-301.
Before Dr Lee’s defection, Mr Johnson only had a working majority of one in the Commons thanks to his deal with the DUP. At a stroke, Dr Lee’s decision turned the Prime Minister’s administration into a minority government of minus one.
Dr Lee, MP for Bracknell, crossed the floor as Mr Johnson delivered a statement to MPs in the wake of the G7 summit yesterday
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson (left) looked delighted as she sat alongside Phillip Lee (right) after he defected yesterday
Jacob Rees-Mogg takes a lie down in the Commons last night, as Anna Turley MP slammed him for ‘the physical embodiment of arrogance, entitlement, disrespect and contempt for our parliament’
The defection came just as Mr Johnson prepared to deliver a statement to MPs on the G7 summit, and hours before an alliance of Tory and Opposition MPs attempted to seize control of the Commons’ order paper to prevent a No Deal Brexit.
The former justice minister, a prominent supporter of a second EU referendum, said the Government was ‘aggressively pursuing a damaging Brexit in unprincipled ways’.
‘It is putting lives and livelihoods at risk unnecessarily and it is wantonly endangering the integrity of the UK,’ he said in a statement.
Dr Lee, a qualified doctor, also said his decision was made after Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg behaved ‘disgrace-fully’ to a fellow doctor during a radio-phone row over whether anyone might die as a result of a No Deal Brexit.
In his resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Lee claimed Brexit had ‘helped to transform this once great party into something more akin to a narrow faction, where an individual’s ‘conservatism’ is measured by how recklessly one wishes to leave the EU’.
Dr Lee later hinted at further defections from the Tories, telling Sky News: ‘I guess the elevation of Boris Johnson to the Prime Minister’s position has accelerated events.
‘I don’t think that everybody who’s currently siting as a Conservative is going to be sitting as a Conservative after the next election.
‘Whether they join the Liberal Democrats or not, it’s an individual decision but I really wouldn’t be surprised if more come to this conclusion over the next few days.’
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Lee also said the Tories had ‘become infected by the twin diseases of English nationalism and populism’.
He told BBC Radio 4’s PM the ‘bullying’ of MPs opposed to No Deal showed the ‘tone and culture’ of the Conservative Party had fundamentally changed, and he knew of other like-minded colleagues who were also considering their futures. Dr Lee’s decision to cross the floor was greeted with cheers on the opposition benches.
Former PM Theresa May positioned herself alongside Tory Remainer Ken Clarke for the statement yesterday and appeared to be enjoying Mr Johnson’s discomfort
But last night former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith criticised Dr Lee. ‘It looked like [Dr Lee] should be joining RADA [Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]… The whole thing was stage-managed,’ he said.
‘It’s pretty deceitful if you move from one party to the next, when the British people voted for you and you were supported by the Conservative Party, its money and its organisation.’
The MP’s defection wipes out the Tory-DUP majority, though suspended Dover MP Charlie Elphicke is expected to vote with the Government. It also brings the number of Lib Dem MPs to 15 after his fellow former Tory MP Sarah Wollaston joined the party last month.
Former ministers Justine Greening and Alistair Burt also said yesterday that they would not seek re-election as Conservatives in the next general election, expected in weeks.
And Tory MP Keith Simpson said he was stepping aside, though said it was to do with his turning 70, rather than Brexit. Announcing her decision to stand down as a Tory MP at the next election yesterday, Miss Greening, the former education secretary, said the Prime Minister was ‘narrowing down’ the Tories’ appeal to the public.
She vowed to support a rebel bill tabled by Labour’s Hilary Benn to force Mr Johnson to seek an extension to the Brexit deadline.
Second referendum-backer Miss Greening said her fears that the Tory Party would morph into Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party had ‘come to pass’.
The Conservative Party rebel told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the Prime Minister was offering the country a ‘lose-lose’ situation by threatening a general election.
Explosion of loathing at No10: From ex-Chancellor’s savage attack on Boris’s Brexit tactics to PM thumping Cabinet table, the incendiary row that led to Tory defeat
Analysis by Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail
If Boris Johnson woke up yesterday thinking the prospect of an early election, combined with his threat to deselect Tory MPs who try to thwart his Brexit plans, would cow the rebels, he was swiftly disabused of the notion yesterday morning.
At 8.10am on Radio 4’s Today Programme, Philip Hammond – 22 years a Tory MP, a former defence and foreign secretary and until a few short weeks ago Chancellor of the Exchequer – was defiant.
Not only would he vote for a Labour-backed Bill designed to stop No Deal and force Mr Johnson to ask for a three-month extension to Article 50, but he believed the rebels had the numbers to force the controversial legislation through.
Taking clear aim at Mr Johnson’s de facto chief of staff Dominic Cummings, he added: ‘I am going to defend my party against incomers, entryists, who are trying to turn it from a broad church to narrow faction.
‘People who are at the heart of this Government, who are probably not even members of the Conservative Party, who care nothing about the future of the Conservative Party, I intend to defend my party against them.’
Last night’s vote set the seal on a battle that raged around the Palace of Westminster yesterday on what, it is no exaggeration to say, was one of yet another of those extraordinary and exhausting political days.
At the start of the day, the number of Tories publicly committed to rebellion was in the single figures. If Downing Street could keep the numbers down, there was at least some hope of averting defeat.
Both in public and private, No 10 aides condemned a law they called a ‘blueprint for legislative purgatory’, which would cost taxpayers £1billion a month, which was ‘very clearly in Brussels’ interests not in the British interest’. One, invoking the kind of classical allusion enjoyed by Mr Johnson, called it ‘the worst terms since Rome and the Carthaginians’.
The Romans took Carthage, killed most of the inhabitants, sold the rest into slavery and destroyed the city. Just before 10.15am, around 15 rebels entered Downing Street.
Nobody was calling them peace talks, and by the end it was clear they had only served to expose the Brexit civil war tearing the Conservative Party apart.
One attendee described it as ‘the most extraordinary meeting I have ever been in’. The rebel group included former Chancellor Philip Hammond, former justice secretary David Gauke and ex-business secretary Greg Clark – as well as a raft of former junior ministers and senior backbenchers including Sir Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill.
The meeting was held in the Cabinet room, around which many of the rebels had sat as ministers only weeks earlier.
On the Prime Minister’s left sat Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd who has urged him not to pull the trigger on the rebels but to ‘hold our party together’.
The Prime Minister began by arguing that progress was being made with the EU, and the threat of No Deal was having a real impact on Brussels.
Rebels including (left to right) Stephen Hammond, Antionette Sandbach, Richard Benyon, Margot James and Nicholas Soames walked out of Downing Street after a tense discussion with Mr Johnson
source:dailymail