UK Parliament’s next Brexit brawl: When to hold elections

As a law to prevent a no-deal Brexit hurtled toward passage Thursday, British lawmakers began drawing the battle lines for their next fight: when to hold a general election that is now inevitable.

Opposition lawmakers have so far blocked Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan for a mid-October election, but the government said Thursday that it would hold another parliamentary vote on an early election Monday.

That set up a significant clash over when British voters will get to decide who should handle Britain’s departure from the European Union, with opposition Labour lawmakers haggling over what stage of the Brexit process gives them the best chance of wrenching control from Johnson’s enfeebled government.

Johnson sees an election as the only way to create a stable majority for his Conservative Party in Parliament and secure a mandate for pulling Britain out of the European Union by Oct. 31, with or without a deal governing future relations.

Pro-Brexit demonstrators outside Parliament in London on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019. As a law stopping a no-deal Brexit moved closer to clearing its final hurdle, British lawmakers began drawing the battle lines for their next fight: whether, and when, to hold a general election. (Andrew Testa/The New York Times)

“I don’t want an election at all, but frankly I cannot see any other way,” he said Thursday during a speech in northern England. “The only way to get this thing moving is to make that decision.”

To keep alive the possibility of pulling Britain out of the European Union by Oct 31, Johnson wants to hold the election as quickly as possible. But opposition lawmakers are reluctant to let him schedule the election on his terms. Some of them reason that postponing a vote until November would force Johnson to abide by a law blocking a no-deal Brexit and to ask Brussels for a delay, thereby breaking the central promise of his tenure.

Johnson said Thursday that he “would rather be dead in a ditch” than ask for that delay.

The prime minister, fresh off purging his party of 21 of its most senior lawmakers for defying his government, received an even more personal blow to his authority Thursday when his younger brother, Jo Johnson, resigned from Parliament, suggesting that working in the prime minister’s Cabinet was no longer in “the national interest.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons, said that Parliament would hold another vote for an early election Monday. That is the same day the bill stopping a no-deal Brexit is expected to receive royal assent and become law.

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