Will A Snap Election Rid Britain Of Boris Johnson Before Halloween?

The unelected, goofball far right prime minister of Britain, Trumpist Boris Johnson, has a special Halloween cooked up this year-- crashing Britain out of the EU and triggering a Great Recession for his country, for Europe and possibly worldwide.  Tomorrow Labour and the Lib Dems are joining together-- presumably with some rebel Tories-- to defeat Johnson's plan by offering a law to delay the Brexit deadline again, past Halloween. Voters-- and a majority in Parliament-- oppose a No Deal Brexit so this should be relatively easy, right? Nope,of course not. This is England.

Johnson announced over the weekend that he will expel and Conservatives who back it. That means they won't be able to run for reelection as Conservatives. Former Cabinet Minister David Gauke told the BBC that Johnson seems "quite prepared for there to be a rebellion and then to purge the rebels from the party. Their strategy, to be honest, is to lose this week and then seek a general election having removed those of us who are not against Brexit, not against leaving the European Union, but believe we should do so with a deal."

This is a full-blown Conservative Party civil war even though, by kicking rebel MPs out of the party, Johnson kills his own majority in Parliament. Peter Walker and Jessica Elgot for The Guardian: Johnson is treating the vote tomorrow like a No Confidence vote. He is expected by many in Parliament to call a snap election, which requires a two-thirds majority in the House of Commons.

The backbench rebels, spearheaded by the Tory former ministers David Gauke and Philip Hammond and the backbenchers Oliver Letwin and Dominic Grieve, are expected to attempt to take control of the Commons agenda on Tuesday, when parliament returns from the summer recess.

They would then seek to push through a bill mandating an extension to Brexit before parliament is suspended at the end of the week.

Earlier on Monday, Gauke predicted the expected vote on the backbench bill could be “very tight” but said government threats to deselect Conservative MPs who defy the party on the issue could increase the number of rebels.

Gauke said he had written to the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, and his successor as justice secretary, Robert Buckland, asking for clarification about comments by Michael Gove, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who declined to rule out the idea that the government could simply ignore the bill if it were passed by MPs.

“It would be very helpful if the government could clarify that they believe in the rule of law,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Gauke declined to say what the bill could seek to achieve. But another leading rebel, the former Tory MP Nick Boles, said a likely consensus plan would be to delay Brexit by a couple of months from 31 October, to allow enough time for a deal to be reached but not enough time for a second referendum.

The stakes for would-be Tory rebels became markedly higher at the weekend when Downing Street confirmed Conservative MPs who backed the no-deal blocking measure could lose the party whip, meaning they would be unable to stand for the Tories in the next election.

Downing Street has also repeatedly refused to say whether Johnson could simply ignore the backbench legislation if it was passed.