
Sterling steadies as Johnson suffers heavy defeat
04 Sep 2019
Boris Johnson’s government was defeated in Parliament last night by a vote of 328-301.
This means that anti no-dealers will take control of the order paper today and seek to legislate for a three-month extension to avoid a no-deal Brexit, if no deal is reached before 31 October. A total of 21 backbench Conservative MPs crossed the aisle to defy the government, including Father of the House Ken Clarke, former Chancellor Philip Hammond and Winston Churchill's grandson Sir Nicholas Soames. All 21 have now been stripped of the Tory whip and will sit as independents in the House of Commons. Mr Johnson’s government has now tabled a motion for an early General Election, unhappy that he considers his hands are now to be tied in Brexit negotiations by legislation which takes no-deal off the table. However, whilst Labour has been keen to see a General Election, there are doubts whether Labour will back the General Election motion today as they seek to tie Mr Johnson’s hands with the anti no-deal legislation first.