Corbyn: Johnson plotting abuse of power to force no-deal Brexit

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Corbyn: Johnson plotting abuse of power to force no-deal Brexit

Labour leader calls on top civil servant to spell out election rules

Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot
Thu 8 Aug 2019 22.30 BST Last modified on Thu 8 Aug 2019 23.16 BST

Jeremy Corbyn has called on the UK’s most senior civil servant to intervene to stop Boris Johnson forcing a no-deal Brexit in the middle of an election campaign, amid rising signs the country is heading for the polls again this autumn.

The Labour leader wrote to Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, accusing the prime minister of plotting an “unprecedented, unconstitutional and anti-democratic abuse of power”, after it emerged No 10 would be prepared to delay an election until immediately after 31 October if Johnson loses a no confidence vote among MPs.

In his letter, Corbyn demanded urgent clarification of the rules around purdah, which are meant to prevent the government taking major policy decisions during an election campaign.

He asked Sedwill to confirm that if the UK is due to leave the EU without a deal during an election campaign, then the government must seek an extension to article 50 and allow an incoming administration to take a decision about Brexit on the basis of the result.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/08/corbyn-johnson-plotting-abuse-of-power-to-force-no-deal-brexit

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Corbyn has been outmanoeuvred by the Tories - he's left everything too late

He should have put down the No Confidence motion before parliament broke for the summer recess (as the Lib Dems asked him to), or he should have done something to force parliament to come back earlier than Sept 3rd.

He's now reduced to saying "surely we can't let the law we naively passed about a 31st Oct leave date take effect? Surely the rule about not making major changes during a campaign means the government should really be renegotiating the leaving date during it?"

He's fucked up (though it's entirely possible he knew all this, and just wanted Britain out of the EU, but with the Tories taking the blame for the chaos, because he's more interested in winning an election than in stopping No Deal).