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NOW LET BRITAIN DECIDE
Furious Boris Johnson demands election as rebels take step to block No Deal Brexit
BORIS Johnson last night demanded a snap general election after rebel MPs pulled off an extraordinary coup to allow a block on Brexit until next year plunging Westminster into outright chaos.
Twenty one Conservative MPs - including NINE ex-Cabinet ministers - were sacked minutes after siding with Labour to seize control of Parliament’s agenda from 3pm today.
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The hot potch cross-party majority of 27 will today attempt to ram a new law through the Commons in just four hours.
It will force the PM to extend Article 50 talks as well as Britain’s EU membership for a THIRD time until January 31.
The alliance insisted the move was vital to halt the threat of a calamitous exit without an agreement in just eight weeks time.
But in tense Commons scenes yesterday, livid Mr Johnson branded the move “Corbyn’s surrender bill”, and insisted it would rip up his negotiating bid to win a better deal from Brussels.
Refusing point blank to accept the new delay, he thundered: “It means running up the white flag”.
Instead, the PM demanded voters should decide whether Britain should leave the EU on the current timeline of October 31 with a snap general election, probably be held on October 15.
Mr Johnson added: “The Leader of the Opposition has been begging for an election for two years, he has crowds of supporters outside calling for an election.
“I don’t want an election but if MPs vote tomorrow to stop negotiations and compel another pointless delay to Brexit – potentially for years – then that would be the only way to resolve this.
“And I can confirm that we are tonight tabling a motion under the Fixed Terms Parliament Act.”
But this morning Labour confirmed they would NOT vote for it - because they hadn't yet stopped a No Deal Brexit.
Sir Keir Starmer told Sky News this morning: "We're not dancing to his tune.
"We are not going to be voting for Boris Johnson today."
On another day of chaos and high drama in Westminster:
- Boris Johnson’s wafer-thin working Commons majority was slashed to zero as Tory rebel Phillip Lee defected to the Lib Dems
- The biggest Tory split over Europe in three decades exploded as the 21 rebels were all thrown out of the Conservative parliamentary party
- Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn said his MPs will refuse to back Boris’s election bid unless he agrees to the law to stop a No Deal Brexit at the same time
- The PM revealed his plan to break the Brexit deadlock, proposing an ‘all-Ireland’ market for livestock and agriculture
- Rebel leader Philip Hammond fought a face to face verbal joust with the PM in No10 as he refused to back down in last minute talks
Last night the Speaker then got into a fuming row with Michael Gove - blasting the minister and even naming his kids' school in a deeply personal attack.
And crazed scenes in the Commons the PM's top aide Dominic Cummings confronted Jeremy Corbyn over his refusal to back a General Election.
It was reported that the furious aide shouted in the Labour leader's face: "Come on Jeremy let's do this election, don't be scared".
But Labour sources claimed it was a "total fabrication".
As the result was declared an MP mocked Boris Johnson by crowing: “Not a good start, Boris.”
It marked the first time a PM lost his first vote since Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Roseberry in 1894 – 125 years ago.
The margin of victory mirrored the Referendum vote - 52 per cent to 48 per cent.
Former Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said he voted to stop No Deal after hearing Ken Clarke’s speech – “when you hear speeches like that you just know you’re on the right side”.
Frantic arm-twisting and inducement offers – including rumours of peerages – from government whips managed to buy off a handful of Tory rebels.
Mr Johnson also called in the group to his Downing Street study for more than an hour of talks on Tuesday, and pleaded with them to delay their action until after the crunch EU summit on October 17.
There are no circumstances in which I will every accept anything like it
Boris Johnson on Corbyn's 'surrender bill'
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What happens now?
TODAY:
- MPs will bring forward a new law to try and delay Brexit for a third time - rushing it through the Commons and Lords before Parliament breaks up
- Boris has said he will bring forward a motion for a snap election believed to be on October 15
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also warned that extending EU membership beyond October 31 will cost taxpayers £1billion a month.
But most of the rebels held firm, and by early evening Government ministers privately admitted the game was up.
Before the 9.51pm vote even began, Tory Chief Whip Mark Spencer had begun to carry out Mr Johnson’s threat to expel the Tory rebels, calling each in one by one.
They were also banned from standing as a Conservative MP again.
Senior Tories also exchanged bitter abuse in the Commons as the three hour long debate to seize the order paper went on.
Ex-Tory minister and rebel chief Sir Oliver Letwin, who wrote the bill, attacked Boris directly, saying: “The Prime Minister is much in the position of someone on one side of a canyon shouting to the people on the other side of the canyon that, unless they do as he says, he will throw himself into the abyss.
“This does not strike me as a credible negotiating strategy.”
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg hit back at Sir Oliver to accuse of “stunning arrogance” and an “arrogant power grab”, as he branded the bill “the most unconstitutional use of this house” since the 19th Century.
The new law “seeks to confound the referendum result again”, the Eurosceptic minister argued, adding in fury: “We should recognise that the people are our masters and show us to be their lieges and servants, not to place ourselves in the position of their overlords.
“As we come to vote today, I hope all members will contemplate the current constitutional confusion and consider the chaos this concatenation of circumstances could create.”
Mr Rees-Mogg also attacked Speaker John Bercow for allowing the emergency debate to take place – a move he dubbed a clear bending of long-standing Commons rules.
Mr Bercow hit back with a taunt at the PM as he paraphrased Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership election catchphrase.
Deadlock 'Breaker'
BORIS Johnson last night revealed his plan to break the Brexit deadlock — agreeing an all-Ireland market for livestock and agriculture.
During a bitter Commons debate, the PM said he was ready to propose an alternative to the backstop.
Under the plan, Northern Ireland would match Irish and EU rules in certain sectors after Brexit to avoid the need for a hard border. The idea emerged ahead of talks with Irish PM Leo Varadkar, left, next week.
It mimics a compromise European capitals were brainstorming — where the North would mirror Brussels on animal and plant health.
It threatens to enrage Ulster Unionists by, in effect, putting a border down the Irish Sea between the Britain and Northern Ireland. But senior DUP sources hinted they could back it, as long as Belfast’s Stormont Assembly has a veto on which future EU rules Northern Ireland accepts.
The PM has repeatedly told the EU there is no chance of a deal unless the backstop — which is bitterly opposed by Brexiteers — is killed off.
The backstop is designed to avoid a hard border on Ireland by tying the UK to EU customs rules unless a new trade agreement is signed.
The Speaker said: “I am facilitating the legislature, and I will do it to the best of my ability, without fear or favour, to coin a phrase - come what may, do or die”.
The defeat ignited an intense pitched parliamentary battle that will now rage for the rest of the week.
In the Commons, it emerged last night that 17 pro-Brexit Labour MPs will tomorrow demand Theresa May’s deal is voted on a FOURTH time in a bed to escape the chaos.
The MPs, including Gloria de Piero and Stephen Kinnock, will table an amendment to the rebel bill.
And in the Lords, Boris’s backers are preparing to do their all to talk out the bill by tabling a massive 90 amendments to it, which each must be voted on twice.
To retaliate, Remainer peers are expected to demands an emergency sitting over the weekend to ensure they pass the new law before Boris suspends Parliament on Monday.
There was growing Cabinet disquiet over Boris’s confrontational approach last night, believed to have been authored by key No10 aide and former Vote Leave guru Dominic Cummings.
One Cabinet minister told The Sun: “Dominic Cummings has never had any respect for MPs, which is why he thinks they have to be crushed will full aggression.
“He’s learning the hard way that you cannot just bulldoze your way through 650 of them like this.
“It’s a very clever strategy on paper, but it’s devoid of any actual political touch in reality.”
Conservative MP Phillip Lee defects to Liberal Democrats by sitting next to leader Jo Swinson
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