Brexiteers have called out the “betrayal” of MPs voting to take over Commons business in order to push a bill that could make a no deal Brexit illegal.
MPs voted late on Tuesday night 328 to 301 on the motion to “give backbench MPs control of parliamentary time tomorrow to pass legislation aimed at preventing a no deal Brexit” and forcing another delay to Brexit.
The vote is to happen tomorrow, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the government would be tabling a motion calling for a snap General Election if MPs voted to thwart his Brexit plans.
Brexit Party MEP for the West Midlands Martin Daubney said of the result: “The treachery is complete. The Parliament has betrayed the people. It is now the people v Parliament.”
Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn said he “welcome[d] tonight’s vote” and called on the prime minister to hold a second referendum and “put it [his Brexit policy] before the people in a public vote”.
“And so, he wants to table a motion for a general election, fine get the bill through first in order to take no-deal off the table,” he said.
Arlene Foster, whose Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is in a confidence and supply arrangement with the Tories, condemned those who are “tying the government’s hands”, accusing them of “really trying to cancel Brexit”.
“It’s time to respect the referendum result. Focus on getting a sensible deal rather than playing games,” she wrote.
Referencing comments Nigel Farage made earlier during a rally in Lincoln, the Brexit Party quoted its leader as saying: “I fear that we are headed rapidly towards a very dark place. It’s been going on gradually since 2016. You see, democracy only works if you have the principle of losers’ consent.”
“We are in for the fight of our lives,” Mr Farage had said.
The sentiment that any future election was set to be “Parliament versus the People” was echoed by Brexit Party MEP and chairman Richard Tice.
Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the conservative think tank the Bow Group, was upbeat over what the reaction by Johnson had to say for his commitment to delivering Brexit by the deadline, saying: “Tonight is not a defeat but a triumph for Boris Johnson and [senior adviser Dominic] Cummings.
“They’ve left no doubt to their intentions and determination to leave by October 31st and have turned any future election into Parliament versus the people to which he can play the people’s Brexit champion alongside Nigel Farage.”
The newly appointed chairman of the European Research Group Steve Baker earlier today said that the Tories should sign a non-aggression pact with the Brexit Party and agree to not field competing candidates in certain constituencies.
Mr Baker said: “What’s very clear to me is if we have an election before we have left the European Union, and the Brexit Party think that we are heading in a direction which does not deliver our independence from the EU, then they will stand candidates virtually everywhere.
“And the result will be as per Peterborough and in Wales – they will result in a Lib/Lab Remain coalition and we will lose Brexit, and that’s why I’ve said we need to have some sort of accommodation with them but we are not quite at that bridge yet.”
Twenty-one Tory rebel MPs defied the prime minister and voted with the Opposition. Downing Street reacted by announcing that “The Chief Whip is speaking to those Tory MPs who did not vote with the Govt this evening. They will have the Tory whip removed.”
This would include arch Europhile Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve, Sir Nicholas Soames — who Remainers often remind voters is Winston Churchill’s grandson — as well as author of the standing order that resulted in the vote, Oliver Letwin, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond.
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