Section:GDN 1N PaGe:7 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 21:01 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
Friday 6 September 2019 The Guardian •
Explained^7
How and when might an election be called?‘Boris doesn’t give a toss’
Weary Wakefi eld just shrugs
as the PM bounds into town
Josh Halliday
North of England correspondentL
ike a touring pantomime
villain, Boris Johnson
swept into Wakefi eld to a
chorus of jeers. A crowd
chanted, “Where’s your
brother gone?” and
waved EU fl ags as the prime minister
arrived in the West Yorkshire city
just hours after the resignation of his
sibling and cabinet colleague, Jo.
Most people met his arrival with a
weary sigh. “They promise you this
and that and it never materialises –
we’ve no reason to trust them,” said
Clare Ramsden, 44, over the counter
at Thomas the Baker. “They’re sat
in their offi ce dictating to you – and
he’s [Boris] got all this money but he
never speaks to normal folk.”
Johnson did not stick around to
canvass the voters of Wakefi eld,
which voted two-thirds for Brexit
in 2016 and appears not to have
changed its mind: Nigel Farage’s
Brexit party fi nished top in its
European election vote with 44.6%
(Labour was second with 17%).
The city that sent coal, corn and
clothes to the world in the 18th
century has dispatched a Labour
MP to parliament in every election
since 1932. But Mary Creagh has
a majority of just 2,176 , and her
vocal endorsement of a second
referendum has put Wakefi eld fi rmly
in the sights of the Brexiters.
“I weren’t one of Boris’s biggest
fans, but I admire him for what he’s
done,” said Hussain Lakin, 53, selling
fresh tuna and haddock opposite
Wakefi eld’s towering cathedral. “I▼ Clare Ramsden at Thomas the
Baker: ‘He’s got all this money but
he never speaks to normal folk’
PHOTOGRAPH: FABIO DE PAOLA/THE GUARDIAN‘May got stabbed in
the back by her own
politicians, and I
think they’ve done
the same to Boris’Hussain Lakin
Fishmongerwas a Theresa May fan but I think
she got stabbed in the back by her
own politicians, and I think they’ve
done the same to Boris.”
Previously a lifelong Labour voter,
Lakin said he ditched the party when
Jeremy Corbyn became leader and
has backed the Conservatives since- He would vote Tory in any
general election, he said, and hoped
for a Johnson-Farage coalition. He
stands by his decision three years
ago to vote leave, he said, due partly
to immigration: “I’m not racist at
all – I’m half-Arab – but there’s too
many Slovakians, Romanians ... a lot
of them don’t work.”
Outside Royal Amusements on
the main shopping strip, Kathleen
Taylor, 73, said she was “so angry”
that politicians had “let us down”
by not hauling the UK out of Europe
already. She said she does not
regret voting for Brexit but is fearful
about the potential eff ect of leaving
without a deal: “I’m for a deal, but
it’s got to be a good deal. And if
he doesn’t get a good deal and he
doesn’t get a Brexit, I shall never
vote again – and I’ve voted ever since
I could.”
Mark Evans, 60, said politicians
had worn people down to the point
where “they could do something
really drastic” and voters would
just shrug. He could no longer trust
promises from MPs and Johnson was
“just after power – he doesn’t give a
toss about the country”.
Evans, a remain voter, who has
run a market stall in Wakefi eld for
nearly a decade, said he had voted
Labour all his life but wouldn’t any
more. “I’d be going down the Liberal
Democrats now,” he said. “ Labour
are going nowhere with Jeremy
Corbyn. But these people who are
saying ‘get out, get out’ like Rees-
Mogg and all the rest of them – if we
go out and it all goes to crap, it’s not
going to aff ect them. They’ve got the
money to get over it.”
Enjoying an early-evening
pint in the Moodies pub, George
Theodopolis, 68, said he voted
to remain in 2016 but now fi rmly
believed Britain should leave the EU.
“I voted to remain but we’ve realised
that nobody listens to us. We are the
laughing stock of Europe.”
Peter Walker
Political correspondentOctober
5 612 1319 2026 27123471421 22 23 24 2528 29 30 313 4 5Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat9 1516 17 18 19 20 21 2223 28 29302678129 October is the
earliest possible date
election could be heldUK leaves
the EUVote of no confidence, government loses
Opposition has 14 days to
form a new government25 working days until
election can be heldGovernment loses a confidence vote
(which it may have to call)October
5 612 131234789101114 1521 2228 29 30 313 4 5Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat9 10 11 12 13 14 1516 20 21 2223 24 25 26 27 28 293026781Election calledEarliest possible date an election
could be held is 14 October, but
due to Jewish holiday of Sukkot it
would probably be on 15 OctoberUK leaves
the EU25 working days
until election can
be heldPM calls an early election under the
Fixed-term Parliaments Act, supported
by two-thirds of MPsEuropean
councilEuropean
councilEuroppppean
counccccil15 1626 2719 20231624 25September Scenario A September Scenario Bspeech was inappropriate and they
shouldn’t have been put in that posi-
tion. It clearly turned into a rant about
Brexit, the opposition and a potential
general election. There’s no way that
police offi cers should’ve formed the
backdrop to a speech of that nature.”
Burns-Williamson said he had
expressed his concerns to the chief
constable of West Yorkshire police and
had asked for an explanation.
Yvette Cooper, who chairs the
home aff airs select committee, said:
“For Boris Johnson to make so many
police stop their training and work to
be part of his political stunt is an abuse
of power. Police offi cers and trainees
are overstretched and need to be able
to get on with their job, not have to
waste time listening to Boris Johnson’s
political press conference.”
Her fellow committee member
Stephen Doughty said the speech
appeared to be a “blatant attempt to
politicise our brilliant police” ahead of
an election campaign, adding: “They
are not political props.”
As the offi cer immediately behind
Johnson appeared to feel faint towards
the end of his speech , the prime minis-
ter turned to see what was happening
and appeared ready to draw to a close,
but then continued speaking for
several more minutes.
Johnson, who will try again on
Monday to force a general election
through a vote in parliament, said
there was “a clear choice for the coun-
try” between his vow to leave the EU
by 31 October and Labour’s plans.
Much of the speech involved John-
son urging an election. “I hate banging
on about Brexit. I don’t want to go on
about this any more,” he said. “I don’t
want an election at all but frankly I
cannot see any other way. The only
way to get this thing done, to get this
thing moving, is to make that decision.
“Do you want this government to
take us out on 31 October or do you
want Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour
party to go to that crucial summit in
Brussels on 17 October, eff ectively
hand over control to the EU and keep
us in beyond 31 October?
“I think it’s a no-brainer and I’m
sorry to bring this painful subject up
this afternoon but that’s the reality of
what we face and for me there can only
be one way forward for our country.”
On an investigation into Islamo-
phobia in the Conservative party,
which he agreed to during his lead-
ership election campaign live on TV,
he said: “We are going to have a gen-
eral inquiry into all manner of racism
and hate crime as soon as that can be
got under way but I have to tell you we
have a zero-tolerance policy towards
Islamophobia and all manner of hate
crime and prejudice in the Conserva-
tive party, as you can imagine.”
Journal Lynsey Hanley Page 1
Journal Leader comment Page 2
‘To make so many
police stop their
training and work
to be part of a
political stunt is
an abuse of power’Yvette Cooper
Select committee chair
After being thwarted by MPs in
every Commons vote he has faced
as prime minister so far, Boris
Johnson is in an apparent bind –
likely to face a rebel law obliging
him to seek a Brexit extension, but
unable yet to call the election he
now wants. What are his options?1
Try again to call an
election under the Fixed-
term Parliaments ActThis seems most likely,
and could happen on
Monday, after the rebel
backbench bill receives royal
assent but before parliament is
prorogued. Under the act, passed
in 2011, breaking the set fi ve-year
gap between elections needs
two-thirds of MPs – 434 – to back
the plan. When Johnson tried it on
Wednesday night only 298 did , with
opposition MPs mainly abstaining.
Things could be diff erent on Monday- Labour say they want an election,
but only after no-deal Brexit on 31
October is ruled out. However, even
if Jeremy Corbyn feels suffi ciently
reassured following the passing of
the bill, he could still seek a later
election than the 15 October date
sought by Johnson.
2
Attempt another
method to call an
electionOne mooted
alternative plan would
be for the government
to try to pass a simple one-line bill
amending the FTPA to say that in
this one instance, an election would
happen. The advantage for Johnson
would be that this would need a
simple Commons majority to pass,
meaning a handful of opposition
rebels could sway it. However, No
10 is not keen on the idea for one
reason – any such bill could be
amended by the opposition, for
example to set a particular election
date that Johnson might not want.
Some have mischievously suggestedother amendments could include
extending the vote to 16-year-olds
and EU nationals – this wouldn’t
happen, but it illustrates the can of
worms that could be opened.3
Call a confi dence vote
in his governmentThis was, in the era
before the act, the
nuclear option for a
beleaguered prime
minister – call a confi dence vote in
which MPs could back the PM or
face an immediate election. These
days it is less straightforward. The
FTPA does give provision for the
opposition to call a confi dence vote,
and while i n theory this could be
done by the government, it would
be seen as unusual. In this case it
could end up in the bizarre situation
of Johnson and his MPs voting
against his own administration,
with Labour supporting it. But
even if it passed, the act does not
stipulate an immediate election,
but a 14-day period where an
alternative government could
be formed. Johnson could thus
face being replaced by a caretaker
administration headed by Corbyn- or even someone like the newly
purged Kenneth Clarke.
4
‘Stew in his own juice’This is the phrase
used by some in
Labour for what they
would like Corbyn’s
tactics to be – only
seek a general election for after
31 October, and in the interim
allow Johnson to get by with no
majority, albeit also with a fi ve-week
suspension of parliament from
the start of next week. However,
there could be advantages here
for Johnson, for example time to
hammer home his key messages
that Corbyn is scared of an election,
and that he is being frustrated by
a remain-minded parliament in
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