London: A bill blocking a no-deal Brexit is on course to pass into law before the British Parliament is suspended next week.
The Parliament's upper chamber, the House of Lords, voted early on Thursday to push through the bill. In a session that lasted until 1.30am in London, peers agreed to return the bill to the Commons on Monday for any amendments before passing into law.
Earlier, Labour Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn resisted the carrot of a snap election dangled by Boris Johnson, instead leaving the Prime Minister to run a hamstrung minority government for at least a few more days while his Brexit plans are dismantled.
In another day of high drama in the Parliament on Wednesday, opponents of a "no-deal" Brexit succeeded in passing the bill to tie Johnson's hands in his negotiations with Brussels, by forcing the government to seek another delay to Brexit if it hasn't struck an exit deal with the EU by the end of October.
Johnson had insisted he needed no-deal to be a viable option in order to bring the EU back to the negotiating table.
In chaotic scenes in the House of Commons, former prime minister Theresa May's failed EU divorce deal was raised from the dead in the process - possibly by accident - and could be voted on before the end of the year.
Johnson immediately called a vote for a snap election on October 15, ahead of Brexit, saying the extension bill was a "great dereliction of [MPs'] democratic duty" that had "scuppered" his ability to hold serious negotiations with the EU.
He effectively abandoned his previous pretence at not wanting an election, mounting instead a passionate argument that the country needed one.
The country should decide whether he or Corbyn go to Brussels to "sort out" Brexit next month, Johnson said, warning another extension under Corbyn would mean "years more dither and delay".
But Corbyn left Johnson hanging.
"Let the [extension] bill pass and gain royal assent," he said. "Then we will back an election."
It will be at least a day or two before the extension bill becomes law, depending on progress in the House of Lords.
The government convincingly lost the vote it called to hold an election. It needed a two-thirds majority in the house - 434 votes - but received only 298. Most Labour MPs abstained, while just three voted for an election, along with 284 of the 289 Tory MPs.
After the vote Johnson hinted he would try again, urging Labour MPs to "reflect on the unsustainability of this position overnight and in the course of the next few days".
He taunted Corbyn for being "the first leader of the opposition in the history of our country to refuse an invitation to an election... the obvious conclusion is he doesn't think he will win".
"It is the first time in history the opposition voted to show confidence in Her Majesty's Government," Johnson added.
Corbyn was backed by former Conservative Ken Clarke, who said the Prime Minister was treating Brexit as a game and was now "desperate to have an election" during which he would claim to have been blocked from getting an "amazing beneficial deal" by "wicked" MPs.
Corbyn said the PM's claim to be negotiating a new Brexit deal was a "sham".
"If the Prime Minister does to the country what he has done to his party in the past 24 hours, a lot of people have a great deal to fear," Corbyn said, referring to a purge of rebel Tory MPs the night before.
Labour MP Hilary Benn said the extension bill had a simple purpose "to ensure Britain doesn't leave the European Union on October 31 without an agreement - 'no deal' is not in the national interest".
He conceded another delay wouldn't necessarily mean a deal could be done, but "if someone says you can jump off a cliff, with all the damaging consequences, in a couple of weeks' time, or we could put it off for three months - which would you like?"
He dismissed the Prime Minister's claim that he needed to wield the threat of a no-deal Brexit in negotiations.
"The previous prime minister spent nearly two years saying that no deal is better than a bad deal and it did not seem to work then, and I do not think it will work now," he said. "The truth is... no-deal does not end anything, it would simply plunge us into greater uncertainty."
Former Conservative chancellor Phillip Hammond said he had seen internal government assessments of the damaging effects of a no-deal Brexit, and he said the government was not holding genuine negotiations with the EU.
But Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay accused the rebels and opposition of attempting to stop Brexit altogether, and said the bill would leave negotiations in "purgatory".
However, in a last-minute twist, an amendment to the no-deal bill ensured the extension would be used for a vote on the final version of May's thrice-rejected Brexit deal, which emerged earlier this year after long talks with Labour - but which May never tried to put to Parliament before she resigned.
This amendment, proposed by a cross party group led by Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, was hotly contested and about to be voted on by Parliament. Even as MPs were leaving the chamber to cast their votes, it was automatically passed on a procedural technicality after nobody volunteered to count the "no" vote.
It was unclear whether the absence of tellers was a genuine accident, or a Machiavellian ploy by the government.
The no-deal extension bill passed by 327 votes to 299, with opposition MPs plus 21 Tory rebels expelled from the Conservatives the night before - plus another rebel still in the party.
The bill's supporters had feared its opponents in the Lords could try to stop it by filibustering, with scores of amendments threatening to take days of debate.
If the debate drags on too long then Parliament will be prorogued (suspended) before the bill becomes law. However observers said this was unlikely, as the unelected House of Lords is very reluctant to be seen to overturn the will of the elected Commons.
Earlier, Johnson fronted Parliament for his first Question Time, which focused on the issues of Brexit and the election.
Johnson mocked the Opposition Leader as a "chlorinated chicken" for his refusal to vote for an immediate election.
At one point he appeared to call Corbyn a "big girl's blouse" under cover of Commons shouting. He said the no-deal bill was Corbyn's "Surrender Bill".
- with AP
