British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday missed another attempt to call early elections in December to lift the Brexit from the current stalemate, which resulted in a third postponement of the UK's exit.
The Conservative leader immediately announced a new vote on the organization of elections. He hopes that they will give him the majority to fulfill his promise to implement Brexit, three and a half years after the 2016 referendum.
While he promised an exit from the EU "whatever the cost" on 31 October and said he preferred to be "dead at the bottom of a ditch" rather than ask for a postponement, the other 27 EU members gave Monday, three days from the fateful date, their green light to an extension until January 31, unless the divorce agreement concluded there are ten days in Brussels is ratified by then.
Labor blocked the text
A few hours later, the House of Commons rejected the text of the government convening elections on December 12, which received the support of only 299 deputies (70 against), while a two-thirds majority of 434 votes was needed. . The Labor Party, the first opposition group, blocked the text by abstaining, saying it wanted to first avoid the risk of an exit without agreement and saying it was reluctant to vote in the run-up to Christmas, at a time when students visit their families.
"We will not allow this paralysis to continue," said the prime minister after the vote. "This assembly can no longer hold the country hostage, and millions of families and businesses can not plan for the future." His government will table tonight, he added, a bill allowing another procedure to call elections, by law, with a simple majority, on December 12 or a other. A vote is expected Tuesday.