British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Tuesday that he is tabling a motion in Parliament to call early elections, just after being disavowed by MPs who passed a motion to postpone Brexit, scheduled for October 31.
The text was adopted by 328 votes for (301 against), bringing together deputies of the opposition but also 21 conservative elected representatives hostile to an exit of the European Union without agreement envisaged by Boris Johnson, which is resolutely opposed to a postponement. The Prime Minister had already lost in the day his absolute majority in Parliament with the defection of a conservative MP for the small liberal Democratic party. His government had announced before the vote of the deputies that if he lost, he would call early elections on October 14.
The motion on the elections will be considered by Parliament on Wednesday and must win two-thirds of the vote to be adopted. Also on Wednesday, MEPs will vote on a bill asking the prime minister to postpone Brexit to Brussels.
The British voted 52% in a referendum in June 2016 to leave the EU. The previous government, led by Theresa May, had signed an exit agreement from the EU with Brussels after two and a half years of negotiations, but the text was rejected three times by Parliament.