Boris Johnson finally scored a victory on Tuesday – only to log another defeat minutes later.
After an extraordinary Saturday sitting which found MPs voting 322 to 306 in favor of an amendment that delayed a vote on the actual Brexit deal Johnson struck last week, lawmakers on Tuesday voted 329 to 299 to approve the basic principles of the divorce agreement.
It marked the first win for the incorrigible Boris, who previously declared he’d rather be “dead in a ditch” than ask Brussels for a delay. The amendment which passed over the weekend forced him to do just that, but nevertheless, he did not give up on the push to cram the deal through by the October 31 “deadline”.
Read more: Boris Johnson Asks EU For Brexit Extension. Then Tells Brussels Not To Grant It
The favorable vote in the second reading of the bill paved the way for a vote on a proposed accelerated timetable, which Johnson promptly lost.
The tally was 322 to 308.
And that, as they say, is that – or at least when it comes to Boris’s pipe dream of taking the UK out of the EU by October 31. With MPs having rejected the fast-track timetable, it is now all but impossible for Johnson to push his withdraw agreement through by the end of the month.
Boris has pledged, repeatedly, that the UK would leave the EU by October 31 come hell or high water. “Promises made, promises thwarted” — or something.
Still, Tuesday’s proceedings do make a no-deal, crash-out scenario less likely, and clearly raise the odds of a deadline extension. Johnson “paused” the legislation.
“One way or another, we will leave the EU with this deal, to which this House has just given its assent”, he said.
That’s a far cry from the threats he was making earlier Tuesday (and especially last week). It also doesn’t generally seem consistent with what we imagine an angry Bruce Banner would say just before he turns green and “explodes” out of his “manacles“.
In any event, it’s now at least possible that the UK’s exit from the EU will be delayed until the end of January, an outcome which Johnson says would be unacceptable and may compel him to yank the bill altogether and force an election.
This outcome looks pretty positive for Boris. He can now run against Parliment for having “dragged their feet”. The fact that he got his agreement approved allows him to say he did all he could short of breaking the law to get out. He cleverly withdrew the bill before Parliment could ammend it. He also sent the letter per the law to the EU to comply with the Benn Act, but followed up with a letter saying please don’t give us an extension. This he can use to protect himself and the tories from the right wing Brexit party who will accuse him of not getting out by October 31. With a first past the post system in Britain and a divided opposition it looks like Boris may eventually have his cake and eaten it too- he probably does not need a majority of voters to win an outright majority in parliment. The story is not over yet though- many things could yet happen.