Opposition parties will not back election before October 31st
Anna Soubry, Caroline Lucas, Jo Swinson, Liz Saville Roberts, Ian Blackford and John McDonnell during a meeting of a cross-party group of MPs. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
Opposition parties have opposed Boris Johnson's call for a general election, despite a planned fresh bid to try and make one happen before October 31st.
Jeremy Corbyn spoke with the leaders of the main opposition parties to discuss their resistance to holding a vote before the prospect of a no-deal Brexit on October 31 is eliminated.
Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNPs and Plaid Cymru are all understood to be planning on voting against or abstaining from the Fixed-Term Parliament Act when it returns to the House of Commons.
Opposition leaders including the Lib Dems' Jo Swinson, the SNP's Ian Blackford and Plaid Cymru's Liz Saville Roberts discussed tactics as Johnson returned to the campaign trail of the election he is yet to successfully trigger.
SNP Westminster leader Blackford said he was "desperate for an election", but it could not be until an extension to Article 50 was secured.
You may also want to watch:
He told PA: "It's not just about our own party interests, it's about our collective national interests.
"So we are prepared to work with others to make sure we get the timing right, but the timing right on the basis of securing that extension to Article 50."
Most Read
- 1 Leave EU website suspended after EU registry blocks move to Ireland
- 2 Comedian wins praise after shaming No 10 during Dancing on Ice appearance
- 3 Television drama to focus on Boris Johnson's first year in Downing Street
- 4 Boris Johnson blames seafood companies for post-Brexit sales slump
- 5 Boris Johnson claims Labour supporters using Universal Credit vote to incite hatred
- 6 The greatest failure of government in our lifetime
- 7 Progressive alliance could see Labour win 351 seats at next election, new analysis reveals
- 8 The polling that signals the plight of the Union
- 9 Michael Gove among 14 Tory MPs revealed to have joined banned Parler app
- 10 Dominic Raab 'not convinced' collapse of fishing businesses would be result of Brexit deal
But he did anticipate that an election would be successfully called "over the course of these weeks".
A Lib Dem spokeswoman said: "The Liberal Democrat position for a while now is that we won't vote for a general election until we have an extension agreed with the EU. I think the others are coming round to that.
Become a Supporter
The New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. We believe our voice is important - both in representing the pro-EU perspective and also to help rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.
