Jeremy Corbyn after MPs BLOCK his latest bid for snap election – then SHUTS Parliament for five weeks saying he will REFUSE to extend Brexit despite Remainer law
Boris Johnson shut down Parliament for five weeks today amid chaotic scenes, after humiliatingly losing his latest bid to trigger a snap election.
The PM accused ‘yellow belly’ Jeremy Corbyn and Remainers of ‘conniving to delay Brexit’ – jibing that they ‘can’t hide forever’ from the people’s verdict.
After the result in the early hours of the morning, he vowed that he will defy the ‘device’ of the new Remainer law against No Deal and stick to his ‘do or die’ vow to get the UK out by October 31.
Mr Johnson said opposition parties had decided they ‘know better’ than the public. He insisted he would go to an EU summit on October 17 and ‘strive to get an agreement in the national interest… this government will not delay Brexit any further’.
The brutal attack came as Mr Johnson again failed to gain enough support in the Commons for a snap poll. He fell well short of the required two-thirds of MPs – 434 – with backing from just 293.
It was the sixth full division in a row that the PM had lost, as he endures a baptism of fire.
Parliament is now prorogued until mid-October – meaning a national vote is highly unlikely to happen before mid-November.
The prorogation ceremony itself bore witness to some of the most extraordinary Commons scenes of recent times, with Opposition MPs gathering by the Speaker’s chair to hold up signs reading ‘silenced’ and one new MP apparently throwing himself across the Speaker’s lap to prevent him rising.
Mr Johnson is scrambling to find a way of sidestepping rebel legislation ordering him to beg the EU for an extension if no agreement has been agreed by October 19 – something he has described as a ‘surrender’.
And in a stark message after the election vote he said: ‘No matter how many devices this Parliament invents to tie my hands I will try to get an agreement in the national interest…
‘This Government will not allow Brexit to be delayed any further. While the opposition run, they cannot hide forever.’
