Boris Johnson sticking with the people on Brexit

Eric Lobbecke

Boris Johnson is the right leader for Britain at this fantastically conflicted time. As the Daily Express put it with superb brevity: Parliament surrenders to EU.

The Express was right. Some 21 Conservative MPs voted with the opposition to try to pass a law that would require Johnson to seek a three-month extension from the EU if he has not negotiated a deal by October 19. This, assuming the EU agrees, would put off Britain’s departure from the EU until next year.

If Britain leaves the EU without a formal deal, it would trade with the EU on World Trade Organisation terms, as Australia and the US do now. Those British politicians campaigning to prevent a no-deal outcome are really campaigning, dishonestly, to stay in the EU forever. The deal the EU gave Theresa May would be worse than not leaving as it would mean Britain would stay bound by almost all EU rules and regulations, and could leave that arrangement only if the EU approved.

MORE: Johnson calls for October election after new defeat

At the last election the Conservative manifesto contained the declaration that “no deal is better than a bad deal”. Then when Johnson became leader just a couple of months ago he won overwhelming support from the Conser­vative Party rank and file and from Conservative MPs. His runner-up, Jeremy Hunt, had the same policy position as Johnson: seek a deal if a good one was on offer, but otherwise leave on the basis of no deal.

Similarly the legislation the House of Commons passed three years ago, to trigger Article 50 and leave the EU, nominated a departure date that was not dependent on having a deal. So the Tory rebels have repudiated their own deliberative legislative action regarding Article 50, the party’s manifesto commitment and the party’s leadership choice.

Now Johnson has said he wants to hold an election if the Commons insists on this course of action. But because of the absurd Fixed-Term Parliaments Act he cannot just call an early election but needed two-thirds of MPs to support a motion for one. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is languishing in the polls. Though he has been calling for an election almost every day for the past two years, he now says Labour won’t support the early election motion unless the legislation to kill the no-deal Brexit is passed.

The fixed-terms legislation was always foolish and introduced a ridiculous contradiction into the British system. In almost all parliamentary systems if a government loses control of parliament it calls an election. Johnson wants to hold the election on October 14. If he won, he would have a final negotiation with the EU from a position of strength. Everyone knows what changes are necessary to achieve a withdrawal agreement that Johnson could sign. So there would be plenty of time to do this.

And if the EU were still intransigent, then Britain would leave the EU on October 31 without a deal. On the other hand, if Corbyn were prime minister, he could ask for a longer delay to negotiate the kind of deal Labour says it would like — which would leave all power with the EU — or to hold a second referendum, which Labour would hope would reverse the result of the first and see Britain stay formally within the EU.

However, the Tory rebels, who to a man and women virtually hate Johnson, are now determined to help Corbyn avoid an election for the moment. Corbyn, realising how weak he still is electorally, says he will not co-operate in calling an immediate election.

Pause for a moment to consider the spectacular irony of the present situation.

A week ago, Johnson was denounced equally by the far left of British politics and by establishment papers such as the Financial Times and The Economist as a tin-pot dictator, the killer of democracy, a charlatan, a demogague and a revolutionary because he got the Queen to prorogue parliament in a way that would mean the House of Commons would lose four scheduled sitting days.

Popular protests, people in the entertainment industry and the more vigorous of commentators accused him of staging a coup. One idiot said he expected Johnson to start building gas ovens to liquidate dissidents. Comparisons of Johnson with Stalin and Hitler were common.

This all came from the same people who accuse Brexiteers of being divisive and coarsening debate. Very few dictators, tin pot or otherwise, embrace elections to secure a democratic mandate. Yet now it has been demonstrated that he cannot command the numbers on the floor of parliament so, in accordance almost with all precedent everywhere, Johnson wants an election. He even wants it on the first date available, October 14.

No! No! No! cry the herd of independent minds with startling unanimity. An election? No! No! No! We must keep the Nazi democracy killer in power longer, until hopefully at some point his lead in the polls is removed.

No! No! No! No election without a proper rigging first.

The passionate Remainers have always been scared of the British people. What absolute hypocrites they were when denouncing Johnson’s alleged assault on democracy. Every argument, no matter how ludicrous, has been used to attack the legitimacy of the 2016 referendum, which produced the biggest vote for anything in British history and produced a 52-48 decision to leave the EU.

Many things in democracy involve compromise, splitting the difference, not giving anybody all that they want. But some decisions are binary. Either a country goes to war or it doesn’t. Either a country retains its own currency or it doesn’t. There is not a halfway point in these issues. There is a need for a decision.

Membership of the EU is such a question. Either Britain is a member or it is not. The Remainers are scared of an election, notwithstanding that 90 per cent of the British media, all of academe and a big majority of the House of Commons oppose Brexit. The only people who want to leave the EU are the British people. And the bizarre alliance of the British establishment and the far left is determined that their will should be frustrated.

Surely, though, an election cannot be delayed for very long. There are all manner of tricks yet to come. If Johnson can delay the legislation seeking to bind him until parliament is prorogued next Monday, assuming the courts don’t disallow prorogation, then the legislation lapses and battle resumes on October 14.

Whenever the election comes, it will be the most important for the UK since Margaret Thatcher won in 1979, and perhaps since World War II.