Johnson seeks poll as rebels inflict humiliating Commons defeat

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would seek approval for a snap election after a humiliating parliamentary defeat that saw 21 Tory rebels defy threats of deselection and join the opposition in moving to stop a no-deal Brexit.

Johnson lost his first vote as leader by 328 to 301 in a dramatic conclusion to the first sitting day after the summer recess that saw the government lose its parliamentary majority as Tory Phillip Lee defected to the Liberal Democrats.

Former finance minister Philip Hammond was among 21 Tory rebels who joined with the opposition to take control of the parliamentary timetable. They want to push through a Bill that will delay Brexit until January 31.

The rebel ranks included seven other ex-Cabinet members and Sir Nicholas Soames, the grandson of Winston Churchill along with another former finance minister and Tory veteran Ken Clarke.

Late on Tuesday night they were receiving phone calls from the Chief Whip Mark Spencer saying they were technically no longer Conservative MPs. Several, including Soames, said they would not stand at the next election.

Johnson hit back after the vote, saying he would not request a delay and claimed parliament was "on the brink of wrecking any deal we might be able to strike in Brussels, because tomorrow’s Bill would hand control of the negotiations to the EU".

He added that "if the House votes for this bill tomorrow, the public will have to choose who goes to Brussels on October 17 to sort this out and take this country forward".

While Johnson has threatened a snap election, he cannot simply call one on a whim. The Fixed-term Parliament's Act requires a two-third majority approval in the House of Commons.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sidestepped Johnson's challenge of an election, demanding first that he pass the proposed Bill and remove any threat of no-deal.

DESELECTION THREAT BACKFIRES

Johnson had warned on Monday warned he would call a snap general election on October 14 if parliament passed the backbench cross-party Bill, and threatened any Tory rebels with deselection if they voted against him.

However, by Tuesday there was little sign that the rebels were about to back down and they challenged Johnson's claim that talks with the EU were making progress, adding that they were confident of having the numbers to halt a no-deal Brexit in the Commons.

Lee, a pro-European, crossed the floor of the house as Johnson was delivering a statement on the recent G7 leaders summit in France.

In a letter to the prime minister, he said Brexit divisions had "sadly transformed this once great party into something more akin to a narrow faction in which one's Conservatism is measured by how recklessly one wants to leave the European Union".

"Perhaps more disappointingly, it has become infected by the twin diseases of English nationalism and populism."

POUND HOLDS ON TO GAINS AFTER EARLIER FALLS

The vote result provided a boost for the pound after it fell below $1.20 earlier in the day, compared with $1.50 before the 2016 EU referendum as the rebel MPs wrote to Johnson asking him to reaffirm his leadership election claim that the odds of a no-deal Brexit were "a million to one".

"This will reassure not only us, but the currency markets," they wrote.

Early on Tuesday morning a combative Hammond openly challenged Johnson's claims that EU leaders were moving towards a new deal.

Hammond said "no progress is being made" with Brussels because "the UK government has tabled no proposals".

He also warned against moves to unseat him as an MP, saying "there would certainly be the fight of a lifetime if they tried to".

"This is my party. I have been a member of this party for 45 years. I am going to defend my party against incomers, entryists, who are trying to turn it from a broad church into a narrow faction," Hammond told the BBC in a scathing interview.

In Brussels, a European Commission spokeswoman appeared to confirm Hammond's remarks on the lack of substantive progress in negotiations.

"I cannot report any concrete proposals having been made that we have seen."

Johnson has demanded the Irish backstop is removed from the current withdrawal agreement negotiated by his predecessor Theresa May, and signed by him when he was foreign minister, or he will take Britain out of the EU without a deal on October 31.

The backstop is an insurance policy to make sure that the Irish border remains open whatever the outcome of the UK and the EU’s negotiations about their future relationship after Brexit.