The United Kingdom’s Parliament continues to be quite busy with Brexit. Yesterday, the European Union finally confirmed that it will grant a flexible extension to the Brexit deadline to January 31. The United Kingdom will have the chance to leave earlier than that, if a withdrawal agreement successfully passes through Parliament.
Right now, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pulled his withdrawal bill out of Parliament’s agenda. Instead, the PM is entirely focused on scheduling a preliminary election. In a vote yesterday his plan was thwarted and he failed to secure a two-thirds majority in favor of an election.
However, today he will hold another vote, according to a different set of rules, which would only require a simple majority (50% of MPs, plus 1). After objecting to the PM’s previous election calls, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn today stated that the EU’s extension satisfies Labour’s requirement to get no-deal off the table.
Consequently, the Labour party is expected to vote in favor of an election in today’s vote. The Labour party recently unveiled a progressive political platform that they seem eager to use in the election campaign.
If MPs back December elections, Parliament will disband for 25 days, during which the election campaigns will run.
