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muriel_volestrangler

(102,760 posts)
3. Johnson will introduce an actual act that will implement a managed-deal Brexit
Mon Oct 21, 2019, 10:26 AM
Oct 2019

as agreed last week with the EU. This has a chance of passing - but MPs (and those in the House of Lords interested in the process) want to put it under proper scrutiny, as you normally would with a far-reaching law. Johnson reckons he can get all that done in 10 days, so he can paint himself as having fulfilled his pledge to get the UK out of the EU by Oct 31st. Whether that will work or not, I can't tell. Some MPs want amendments that would force a customs union (which I'd think would be talks with the EU would have to start up again), or another referendum (between the Johnson deal, and remaining in the EU); Labour now supports this in theory.

Pretty much everyone agrees that soon, there'll be an election. The opposition won't agree to that until they're sure there won't be a No Deal Brexit. That will either be when the Johnson-EU deal passes (before or after Oct 31st), or it's definitively rejected before Oct 31st and the EU agrees to an extension. If Johnson gets the UK out of the EU before Oct 31st, his position looks strong for that - Nigel Farage's Brexit party would have no practical reason for existence, Johnson will get the votes of Farage's supporters, and that'll get him at the very least a plurality of seats. If the UK leaves, but it takes longer, Farage may try and stay in business, saying the Tories are too weak and can't be trusted to negotiate further with the EU; how his followers will feel about that, I'm not sure. If Brexit is blocked (and an extension obtained), Farage is bound to be attacking Johnson from the right, and I think Labour and other opposition parties would see him as weak, and a No Deal Brexit averted for long enough to be able to force an election with the hope of removing him.

If that were to happen, things would be far from simple, though; it'd have to be a coalition government, with Labour in charge, the SNP demanding a new Scottish independence referendum in return for support, and quite likely the Lib Dems also needed in the coalition - who will try and keep Britain in the EU, while Corbyn would probably try and exit with a Customs Union agreement and close alignment with the EU on workers' rights and environmental law. How that would work out, who knows. And that uncertainty might mean them all getting the necessary votes isn't simple - because there is a definite "oh god, please let this all stop" feeling in the country now.

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