{"id":12878,"date":"2019-10-23T13:02:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T13:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=12878"},"modified":"2019-10-23T13:02:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T13:02:09","slug":"brexit-boris-johnson-and-jeremy-corbyn-meet-after-timetable-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2019\/10\/23\/brexit-boris-johnson-and-jeremy-corbyn-meet-after-timetable-rejected\/","title":{"rendered":"Brexit: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn meet after timetable rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The meeting comes after MPs rejected the PM&#8217;s plan to fast-track a bill to implement his deal through Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>During PMQs, Mr Johnson said MPs had &#8220;willed the end but not the means&#8221; and it was now the EU&#8217;s decision whether to grant an extension beyond 31 October.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Corbyn told the Commons MPs must &#8220;have the necessary time to improve on this worse-than-terrible treaty&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC&#8217;s political editor Laura Kuenssberg says she understands nothing was agreed at the meeting on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Labour was keen to discuss a different timetable for the Brexit bill, while the PM wanted to know what Mr Corbyn would do if the EU refused to grant an extension, she added.<\/p>\n<p>A Labour Party spokesperson said: &#8220;Jeremy Corbyn reiterated Labour&#8217;s offer to the prime minister to agree a reasonable timetable to debate, scrutinise and amend the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, and restated that Labour will support a general election when the threat of a no-deal crash-out is off the table.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No 10 said there had been &#8220;no meeting of minds&#8221; between the two men and no further talks were currently planned.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Reasonable timetable&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The PM announced that he would pause the progress of the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) on Tuesday after MPs rejected a plan to pass it in just three days.<\/p>\n<p>EU leaders, meanwhile, are considering whether to grant a delay to the Brexit deadline and what length it should be.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson was forced by law to send a letter to Brussels requesting a three-month extension, and No 10 had indicated he would push for a general election if the EU agreed.<\/p>\n<p>His official spokesman said Mr Johnson had spoken to European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday and stressed his continued opposition to a delay.<\/p>\n<p>Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar has confirmed he supports the proposal to grant the UK&#8217;s request.<\/p>\n<p>At Prime Minister&#8217;s Questions, Mr Johnson said it was &#8220;remarkable&#8221; that MPs backed the WAB on its first hurdle through the Commons, but a &#8220;great shame&#8221; the House did not back the timetable for it.<\/p>\n<p>And he said it was &#8220;peculiar&#8221; that Mr Corbyn appeared to want him to bring back the bill when Labour MPs were told to vote against it on Tuesday<\/p>\n<p>In reply, the Labour leader said it was Mr Johnson who had &#8220;decided to delay his own withdrawal bill&#8221; when he made the decision to pause it.<\/p>\n<p>He listed a number of concerns his party had with it, arguing the deal &#8220;creates a very real border down the Irish Sea&#8221;, and raised serious issues around workers&#8217; rights.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Corbyn also accused Mr Johnson of trying &#8220;to prevent genuine democratic scrutiny and debate&#8221; on the deal with the attempt to fast-track the legislation through Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Does the prime minister accept that Parliament should have the necessary time to improve on this worse-than-terrible treaty?&#8221; he asked.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson replied that the UK was &#8220;preserved whole and entire by these arrangements&#8221; and repeatedly insisted the deal was &#8220;approved by Parliament&#8221; on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Complete the task&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Tuesday&#8217;s vote on the bill &#8211; so-called &#8220;second reading&#8221; &#8211; was only the first stage of Parliamentary scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>Detailed dissection by MPs at the committee stage would come next &#8211; along with attempts to amend the bill &#8211; followed by further votes in the House. If it was eventually approved by the Commons a similar process of scrutiny would be carried out by peers in the Lords.<\/p>\n<p>Former Tory MP Ken Clarke asked Mr Johnson whether he was about to table &#8220;a reasonable timetable motion&#8221; so MPs can &#8220;complete the task of finalising the details of the withdrawal bill&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In reply, the PM said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think the people of this country want a delay, I don&#8217;t want a delay, I intend to press on but I&#8217;m afraid we now have to see what our EU friends will decide on our behalf that is the result of the decision that he [Mr Corbyn] took last night,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<p>The fact that talks took place between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson suggests that No 10 may not be totally wedded to the idea of a winter general election. Pressed in the Commons the PM did not close the door to bringing back his deal.<\/p>\n<p>And there are those in government who are deeply wary of winter election. Why? Bluntly, because it is so blooming cold.<\/p>\n<p>No-one is going to thank him if they have to tramp off to the polling station in the bleak midwinter. There&#8217;s a fear that older voters would be the most likely not to turn up &#8211; yet those may be the ones who were keenest to back Brexit.<\/p>\n<p>Then there is the nativity play problem. Many school halls, which are used for polling stations, have been booked up for Christmas activities &#8211; and woe betide Mr Johnson if he forces those to be cancelled.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width\"><\/figure>\n<p>The SNP has indicated it wants an extension to allow for a general election, while the Liberal Democrats say the PM needs to get an extension to allow a further referendum. Both parties would rather the UK revoked Article 50 and stopped the Brexit process.<\/p>\n<p>SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the first ministers of Scotland and Wales, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford, &#8220;joined forces to oppose this Tory government&#8217;s damaging Brexit bill&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He urged the prime minister to confirm that the legislation will not be passed unless consent was given by the Scottish Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Johnson said the Scottish Parliament had no role in approving the Brexit bill and suggested Mr Blackford &#8220;have a word with other opposition parties&#8221; to trigger a general election &#8220;to settle the matter&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement responding to Mr Johnson&#8217;s and Mr Corbyn&#8217;s earlier meeting, Ms Swinson said it was &#8220;more clear proof&#8221; that the Labour leader wanted to deliver Brexit, after 19 Labour MPs supported the bill&#8217;s second reading.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It seems that Jeremy Corbyn has thrown Boris Johnson another lifeline this morning, as six white men met to discuss pushing through a Brexit deal which will wreck our country,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Johnson cannot simply call an election, as prime ministers did before the passage of the 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act.<\/p>\n<p>Under that act, he would need the backing of Parliament, and opposition MPs have previously ruled out holding one until the possibility of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October was ruled out altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Some Conservative MPs say the government should take the Labour Party up on its offer to come up with a timetable for the WAB that satisfies all sides.<\/p>\n<p>source:bbc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The meeting comes after MPs rejected the PM&#8217;s plan to fast-track a bill to implement his deal through Parliament. During PMQs, Mr Johnson said MPs had &#8220;willed the end but not the means&#8221; and it was now the EU&#8217;s decision whether to grant an extension beyond 31 October. Mr Corbyn told the Commons MPs must [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[461,12],"tags":[11261,2735,11941,9204,5090,157,75,1904,5110,7711,10000,8193,11399,539,913,6576,351,911,159,9505,3182,8057,11638,6225,2264,5563,1026,256,661,1828,4691,324,10342,1416,9833,12309,6864,278,2402,4435,11973,1198,2627,4953,3805,3174,7400,11979,6736,5151,9037,658,3240,3523,5150,5149,7836,255,6594,12605,1254,6267,6571,3954,8964,659,594],"class_list":["post-12878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-bbc","tag-bill","tag-border","tag-boris","tag-boris-johnson","tag-brexit","tag-brussels","tag-christmas","tag-cold","tag-conservative","tag-crash","tag-debate","tag-delay","tag-democratic","tag-democrats","tag-donald-tusk","tag-election","tag-eu","tag-european","tag-european-council","tag-fear","tag-forced","tag-friends","tag-government","tag-grant","tag-ian-blackford","tag-jeremy-corbyn","tag-jo-swinson","tag-labour","tag-labour-leader","tag-labour-party","tag-law","tag-leo-varadkar","tag-meeting","tag-men","tag-ministers","tag-mp","tag-mps","tag-nicola-sturgeon","tag-one","tag-parliament","tag-pm","tag-polling-station","tag-president","tag-prime-minister","tag-referendum","tag-revoked","tag-school","tag-scotland","tag-scottish","tag-scottish-parliament","tag-snp","tag-snp-westminster-leader-ian-blackford","tag-sturgeon","tag-taoiseach","tag-the-liberal-democrats","tag-tory","tag-tory-mp","tag-uk","tag-wales","tag-westminster","tag-white","tag-will","tag-winter","tag-withdrawal-agreement","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}