Face of Nation : No 10 has billed Monday’s vote as Labour’s “last chance” to secure an early general election. But the government is expected to be defeated, with opposition parties wanting their law aimed at avoiding no-deal to be implemented first. Boris Johnson is also due to meet Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin.
The prime minister first called for a snap election after MPs – including rebel Tories – voted in favour of a bill requiring him to seek an extension to the Brexit deadline of 31 October if a deal is not reached before 19 October.
That bill is set to gain royal assent and become law on Monday, but has been criticised by ministers as “lousy” and weakening the government’s negotiating position with Brussels.
Downing Street said Monday’s vote, which comes ahead of this week’s shutdown of Parliament, was Labour’s last chance to secure an early election and have the chance to win its own mandate from the public to delay Brexit. The motion, which requires the support of two-thirds of MPs, was defeated last week and is expected to fail again.
It comes after Amber Rudd resigned as work and pensions secretary at the weekend, saying the government was spending 80-90% of its time on no-deal planning rather than trying to reach an agreement with the EU. She told there was “very little evidence” the government would get a new Brexit deal, and when she asked for details of the efforts she received a “one-page summary”.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan said “watching talented colleagues walking away from the cabinet table is never easy”, but she backed Mr Johnson.
She said the public was “exhausted and fed up” with “endless delays” and said that the no-deal option had to be kept on the table. But Ms Morgan said “the prime minister now needs to show he’s serious about getting a deal” and the government needed to display more transparency about its efforts.
An alternative to the Irish backstop, the insurance policy that prevents a hard border on the island of Ireland, is key to striking a deal, Ms Morgan added. UK government wants the backstop scrapped, because it would effectively keep the UK in the European customs regime and tie Northern Ireland to the rules of the single market.
But Ireland maintains the backstop, which comes into force if the UK does not agree a free trade deal with the EU, is the only way to avoid checkpoints. Mr Johnson’s meeting in Dublin will be his first with the Irish taoiseach since he became prime minister.
But ahead of the visit Mr Varadkar played down expectations of an imminent solution to the border issue. “I don’t think the meeting tomorrow is a high stakes meeting, as I don’t anticipate a big breakthrough tomorrow,” he said. If an agreement is struck, it is more likely to happen in October at the EU summit, Mr Varadkar said. The Irish prime minister has said he is open to a solution involving a backstop which only applies to Northern Ireland.
