UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson loses his bid for an early election

Global Business

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson loses his bid for an early electionBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a fresh push on Monday for an early election as EU leaders prepare to back yet another Brexit delay, just days before the departure deadline. (Photo by HO / PRU / AFP)

“Our mission is to leave the EU by the 31st October!” exclaimed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

CGTN’s Holly Hudson reports.

It was a mission that in the end he simply couldn’t accomplish. Boris Johnson said he’d “rather be dead in a ditch” than request a Brexit extension past 31st October. But only after parliament legally forced him to do so.

The European Union, agreed for a fourth time, to delay the deadline by which the UK is set to leave the bloc. As negotiators try to avoid yet another stumbling block on the road to Brexit.

This was the week that Boris Johnson pledged the U.K. would leave the EU. No. 10 blames parliament for forcing him to break that promise.

Now, MPs have another three months from the EU to try and break the impasse, but the public, the British House of Commons and even the parties themselves., still seem bitterly divided on how to move forward.

On Monday night, Boris Johnson failed for the third time to get enough MPs to back an early general election, after opposition party Labour abstained from the vote.

“It does seem pretty likely now particularly as the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party came out in favor of it so we do know there is a majority in parliament for an early election even if there’s not the two thirds majority Johnson would need under the fixed-term parliaments act, said Maddy Thimont-Jack from the Institute for Government.

On Tuesday Boris Johnson will try and launch an attempt to force an election in December. The first for almost a century. Even if he gets his way. It is still a huge gamble as no party is currently in a position to guarantee the results.