British Prime Minister Boris Johnson looked set to try for an election after parliament blocked his plan to rush his Brexit deal into UK law.
A day of threats and promises from Johnson ended with an official in his office warning that if the EU agreed to a request from parliament that Brexit be delayed until Jan. 31, then the prime minister would call an election instead.
As European Council President Donald Tusk had earlier signaled that this was what the EU was likely to do, Johnson is likely to put passing his Brexit deal — something he discovered on Tuesday evening that he has the votes to do — on hold in favor of trying to secure a parliamentary majority.
His gamble will be that voters give him one, attracted by his pitch of getting Britain out of the EU with the deal he has negotiated.
The risk is that the polls that put him well ahead prove unreliable — as they have done in the past — and that voters opt instead for the opposition Labour Party’s offer of a softer Brexit, confirmed by a second referendum.
That could put the entire Brexit project in jeopardy.
One risk that has receded is that of a no-deal Brexit, as Johnson is now committed to a deal, and the EU seems likely to allow the time to either pass the deal or have an election.
“One way or another, we will leave the EU with this deal, to which this House has just given its assent,” Johnson told parliament.
Johnson is not certain to go for an election.
He threatened one on Tuesday if parliament did not agree to rush his Brexit bill through, and later in the evening an official repeated the threat, but Johnson has gone back on such promises before.
He said last month he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than apply for a Brexit extension.
Nor is it certain parliament would agree to give him one. He was twice refused last month. But people familiar with Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s thinking said he would support one if Brexit was put off until Jan. 31, removing the risk of an accidental no-deal split.
British Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland suggested he wanted parliament to come up with an alternative timetable to break the impasse, rather than hold an election.
He told the BBC on Wednesday an election might not be necessary if lawmakers can work together to find a way to “crack on.”
Tusk on Tuesday said that he would recommend the EU accept the UK’s request for an extension.
While he did not set a date, his suggestion that this could be agreed by letter, and without a summit, pointed to accepting the British parliament’s request of a new exit date of Jan. 31.
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