In a development that would be mocked if a fiction writer made it up, Labour MP Stephen Kinnock’s amendment to the bill designed to stop a no-deal Brexit has been passed by accident by MPs – because those against it forgot to put up tellers to count their votes.
The effect of Kinnock’s amendment – which is now part of the bill – is to pass Theresa May’s EU withdrawal agreement.
The government is trying to save face by claiming it was done to prevent parliamentary time being used on a second referendum – however, the three-month extension involved would never have been enough to hold a referendum anyway. Johnson is scrabbling to cover his embarrassment for the second time this week.
Pro-referendum MPs are reportedly saying they will still support the bill, describing the amendment as an ‘irritant’.
In any event, the disruption – whether accidental or not – has failed from Boris Johnson’s point of view, because the bill has just passed its third reading. If the House of Lords votes to remove the amendment, it has to come back to the Commons and ‘parliamentary ping-pong’ begins.
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Bloody hell…..anothe bill by a rogue mp. …..Do we have any control over our treacherous mps…..All very worrying and were the whips asleep on the job.?a
Mr Kinnock’s attempt to revive Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement merits an excessively large bucket of cold water.
The Agreement imports from the EU Treaties both its anti-nationalisation provisions and its anti-state subsidies provisions. These pro-capitalist laws would drive a coach and horses through a Left industrial policy.
The Withdrawal Agreement – like the EU Treaties – exposes a wide range of UK legislation to challenge by large corporations if it erodes the free movement rights of those companies. It hands vast political power to a nightmarish new body – the Joint Committee – a body of “independent persons” whose decisions will astonishingly have the same legal status as the Withdrawal Agreement itself. No taking back control here.
Let’s not allow Theresa May’s Agreement to rise from its well-deserved political grave.
https://www.thefullbrexit.com/wa-crimes-against-democracy
At least there were less rebels than in the past
Voted against
Kate Hoey
Abstained
Ronnie Campbell
Ann Clwyd
Stephen Hepburn
John Mann
Derek Twigg
Fewer!
Now is not the right time to be correcting someone’s comment. We know what he meant.
The usual suspects are at it again…trying to force Corbyn to delay an election…..Remember it’s Johnson’s decision….not ours!…..We may not get another chance for the election whilst the Torys are in disarray…..General election now…..or lose the momentum and hand over the leadership to the traitors……We really can’t be stupid enough to look a gift horse 🐎and wait?We must not try to keep the traitors happy and Tony Blair,…it’s the road to nowhere
“trying to force Corbyn to delay an election”
Hang on – Corbyn is *against* a precipitate election. For obvious reasons. It’s basic tactics.
RH The basic tactics are November thats what the so called moderates want……get real the Torys will regroup by then and corbyn will be left with egg on his face and a full blown coup and another leadership election…..back to square one and more years of Tory misery…..basic tactics?….arseholes!
Joseph – have you had time to look at the current polling trends?
It’s not a pretty sight, and Johnson’s initial boost will need time to disappear. Then there’s the continuing manufactured unpopularity of Corbyn. Again, not a pretty sight.
The current shambles of Johnson’s premiership and his character in general isn’t cutting through except amongst the converted.
Behind all of which will be the confusions of the Brexit issue – contaminating any attempt to get to the real domestic issues.
I take it you want Labour to win?
Sure that you have a good point about the polls RH. However, the Steven Bush argument is partly that a “late” election” gives Johnson, his supporters and the MSM a lot more time to “manufacture” the unpopularity of Corbyn. FWiW, here’s an extract:
” … But the ‘let Johnson stew in his own juices’ crowd are at risk of being too clever for their own good too. Holding off the start of the formal election campaign until after the extension has been triggered means effectively, a two month election campaign on top of the 25 working day statutory campaign – but crucially, a two month campaign in which the tighter broadcast rules around elections do not apply and there are no restrictions on what political parties and outside groups can spend.
That does mean that various pro-Remain and anti no-deal groups can organise and campaign to the heart’s content: but more importantly it means that the full might of the government’s advertising budget can also be deployed, while the government will continue to enjoy a disproportionate level of coverage for its announcements up until the contest proper starts. It also means two months of prominent headlines about Labour MPs and their trigger ballots.
Delaying also facilitates Nicola Sturgeon’s attack line against Scottish Labour, that they are weak and indecisive and only a vote for her party is guaranteed to produce a Scottish parliamentary contingent capable of standing up to the Conservative government. (Though Labour may reason that they are going to get shellacked in Scotland come what may.)
Of course, an election runs the risk of a Johnson majority – but that’s the risk of any election at any time. Neither big party looks certain to do best with an imminent election or by pushing it out to November: but to my eyes the risk of waiting is heavier for Labour. “
kinnock…
….kinell 😒
Will use up valuable time and could allow Tories to get away with it.
deselections now please …while we have time.
Marti……De selections that’s unfortunately a bit late in the day before an election within weeks…..?
I’m gonna be honest. I just don’t understand the significance of this. As far as I can guess, it just makes EVERYONE look bad apart from S Kinnock. Is that right?
I will confess to being baffled by events (Bay Whitaker’s post) and I don’t have a position on them. I understood why the LP was opposed to a snap GE prior to having seized control of commons business, since a call for a GE, at that stage could have mitigated against the cross party strategy.
However, the official LP line now is that a GE will not be agreed to until the anti no deal bill is established in law, i.e. agreeing to an election yesterday would somehow have been a threat to the Bill reaching royal assent, even though it had passed all three stages in the commons? If it doesn’t pass the Lords, then surely the LP would want an election anyway, since there would be no other way of preventing a no deal Brexit (given Johnson’s direction of travel). Has a cast iron opportunity been missed?
No doubt there’s a tactical debate going on about the timing. It would good to have some reassurance that the so called bear trap isn’t in fact a Blair trap.
Nobody knows for sure, it seems. But one certainty, it seems, is that the Tories cannot continue ‘in power’ with no majority and so there now must be an election. The problem is that Johnson is playing dirty and so there will be all sorts of tricks available to him. Labour will, hopefully, be able to keep up but probably will not want to reveal what they understand. So, the chaos that is part of the Bannon script is assured. Dangerous times but quite understandable that nobody is able to forecast with certainty where we’ll be in the coming days. Hope that helps.
Like.
I am not a paying subscriber to the ‘New Statesman’, for a range of reasons, but I do receive its free “Morning Call”. This A.M. Steven Bush made rather a succinct case for Labour having the election sooner rather than later.
I can’t provide a link, but if there’s any interest at all, I’ll cut and paste it on this thread.
Nobody knows for certain what will happen from now but Johnson and the Tories are very much on the back foot.
Victoria Derbyshire’s programme just showed some brilliantly funny internet pisstakes of Rees Mogg lounging on the front bench yesterday – the one with a red line graph of Tory decline draped over his slouching, effete, skeletal carcass was my favourite.
Johnson’s government looks weaker and less competent by the hour not the day, ably assisted by Cummings’ Machiavellian genius.
Looking like dribbling idiots might be to lull us into a false sense of security though, so I might be wrong to trust in Corbyn’s judgement…