British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s life-long ambition may have been fulfilled once the removal vans unloaded his possessions at 10 Downing Street, however the blonde has been afflicted with one bombshell after another. Whether it be suffering ten defeats in Parliament (so far), two historic court rulings going against him and accusations of the misuse of public funds after paying his alleged ‘lover’, Jennifer Acuri, one hundred and twenty-six thousand pounds for ‘technology lessons’.
On Monday evening, Johnson lost another vote in his efforts to secure a general election for 12th December.
Why does Boris Johnson want an election now?
The PM is determined to push for an election now that the EU has granted a further three-month extension for his Withdrawal Agreement Bill.
Mr Johnson was forced to write to the EU to request a delay due to MP’s passing the Benn Act on the 19th October. The Benn Act (EU Withdrawal No.2 Act) requires the government to act to stop a No-Deal Brexit on 31st October.
On 28th October, the EU granted the UK’s request for a ‘flextension’ until 31st January, 2020.
If the PM’s deal is passed in Parliament then the UK can leave the EU before that date.
Johnson needs an election in the hope he can restore the Conservative Party’s majority in Parliament in order to get his deal through.
The 2017 snap election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party having won the most seats in the House of Commons with 317 Conservative MPs, but without an overall majority needed to govern (326 out of 650 seats).
The DUP, which won 10 seats in the election, suggested it would be able to provide a coalition or confidence-and-supply arrangement depending on negotiations. Downing Street announced that a final agreement between the DUP and the Conservatives would see Theresa May lead a minority Conservative government supported legislatively by the DUP.
Will Boris Johnson win an election?
Now that No Deal Brexit and the ‘do or die’ pledge to take the UK out of the EU on the 31st October have both been stopped, it is unclear how Johnson will do in the polls.
The Financial Times has created a poll tracker, which, as of Tuesday 29th October, shows the Conservatives ahead with 36 per cent and Labour at 25 per cent:
‘The tracker shows the Tories ahead of the opposition Labour party in the polls since Boris Johnson became prime minister in July. The FT poll tracker collects all published UK voting-intention polls. The trend line it calculates uses only the most recent poll from each pollster and weights polls according to how recently they were conducted, writes Martin Stabe. According to this method, Mr Johnson’s Conservative party would go into an election campaign with an 11-point lead over Labour.’ (FT, 29.10.19)
The Financial Times will be updating the tracker daily: https://www.ft.com/brexitlive
When will an election take place?
https://www.snp.org/serial-loser-boris-johnson-and-his-litany-of-defeats/
How Brexit Went So Wrong: A Crisis Of Leadership
Brexit: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says party to back general election — latest news
UK election date: which party wants what, and why does it matter?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/29/uk-election-date-party-wants-why-matter
Feature image
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-50216607
#Boris Johnson, #Brexit, #EU, Election, Jeremy Corbyn, UK
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