BORIS Johnson’s Tory government suffered a massive defeat in the House of Commons on Tuesday night when 21 of its MPs rebelled and voted for a motion designed to prevent a no-deal exit from the EU on 31 October.
The motion was passed by 328 votes to 301 with the rebel Tories joining with Labour, the LibDems and SNP to inflict a massive defeat on the government.
All 21 rebel Tories immediately had the party whip withdrawn from them meaning they are no longer Tory MPs and that Johnson’s wafer thin majority of just one has been destroyed.
This should immediately result in the government resigning and calling a snap general election, something that Johnson has pledged to do if defeated in the vote.
However under the rules of the ‘fixed term parliament’ act calling a general election requires a two-thirds majority in the Commons voting in favour of calling one and the Labour leadership have made it absolutely clear that they bitterly oppose a snap general election. This is despite Jeremy Corbyn consistently demanding a general election for years.
As recently as last weekend at a rally in Salford Corbyn was demanding a general election, insisting that Labour was ready for one at any time and that he would call for one in any circumstance.
All this changed on Tuesday night when Corbyn made it clear that his priority now was to block a no-deal Brexit and he would only support calling a general election once Parliament had made it illegal to leave without a deal.
Corbyn made his position clear in Tuesday’s debate saying: ‘No deal will mean food shortages and medical shortages, and it will bring chaos to our ports and transport networks.’
He went on ‘Our economy is already fragile – the economy contracted in the last quarter and manufacturing has contracted at the fastest pace for seven years – and no deal would accelerate that decline.’
He concluded by appealing to MPs of all parties saying: ‘I urge all MPs today to do what they believe to be right for their constituents – for their jobs, their living standards and their communities – and support the proposal today that we may debate the Bill tomorrow and prevent a no-deal Brexit, with all the damage it would do to our community and to our society.’
Not a word from Corbyn about the world crisis of capitalism, the real driving force behind the collapse of manufacturing, and the attack on jobs and living standards of workers in Britain, Europe and America. Instead it’s all down to Brexit and the fault of the millions of workers who defied their leaders back in 2016 and voted to leave the bosses and bankers EU.
Corbyn intends to dump this vote not by ‘going to the people’ in a general election but by the back-door route of getting a united front with Tory Remainers to kill no-deal before any election. No wonder the EU is embracing Corbyn as their new best friend.
The EU bosses aren’t the only ones; two of the biggest banks in the world – the US Citibank and the German Deutsche Bank – have also warmed to Corbyn.
Citibank boss Christian Schultz said ‘Is Corbyn as bad as no-deal? Perhaps no longer’ while ‘a fiscally profligate no-deal Conservative government is no longer as enticing’.
Deutsche boss Oliver Hardy echoed this sentiment saying that bankers’ fears about Corbyn ‘may be overstated’ and that a coalition between Labour and the LibDems would be the most favourable outcome for the world financial system. Corbyn is now the darling of the bankers determined to kill Brexit and keep the working class chained forever to the EU.
The working class must now intervene and put an end to all the reactionary plotting by Corbyn and the TUC to stab the Brexit vote in the back.
Join our lobby of the TUC September Congress next Monday to force the TUC leaders to call a general strike on October 31 to carry out no-deal Brexit, bring down the Johnson government and go forward to a workers government that will expropriate the bosses and bankers and build a socialist planned economy.
