London, Opposition parties at Westminster announced they are planning a joint effort to prevent Prime Minister Boris Johnson taking Britain out of the European Union without a deal.
The House of Commons has passed a bill, signed by the British monarch, requiring Johnson to ask Brussels for an extension of Britain’s membership if there is no deal in place by mid-October, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
Johnson has insisted Britain will leave the bloc “with or without a deal” on Oct. 31, adding he will not ask for an extension.
Labour, the Scottish National Party (SNP), Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru (the Party of Wales) as well as the Green Party, agreed to meet Monday to consider all parliamentary mechanisms to stop a no-deal Brexit.
The main opposition Labour Party said the parties agreed that stopping a no-deal Brexit was a priority.
Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader in the Parliament, told Sky News that opposition party leaders agreed that she would investigate what might be done to impeach or censure Johnson.
She said: “I hope that we will find a way of censuring the prime minister. That’s what I raised with the leaders of the opposition parties today. And we will be looking together at how to take that forward.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would push his MPs to vote for a general election as soon as a Brexit delay is implemented.
Corbyn said: “We will be taking parliamentary action on this again next week to ensure that the prime minister does not crash us out of the EU on October 31 without a deal.”
Anger across the floor of the House of Commons continued for a second day as the battle of Brexit continued to dominate a war of words.
MPs spent hours debating the increasing number of threats politicians and their families were receiving, with demands for Johnson to apologise for some of the provocative languages the opponents believed he was using in his exchanges with them.
Johnson has accused the opposition politicians of sabotaging Brexit by passing a “surrender act”, calling for an extension of EU membership.
Labour has insisted it won’t support calls for a snap general election until there is a lock in place to prevent Johnson’s attempt to leave the EU without a deal.
Johnson met backbench Conservative MPs behind closed doors in Westminster and according to the Daily Telegraph, he said MPs will not be “bullied” into curtailing their language as he refused to stop using the term “surrender act”.
Speaker John Bercow tried to calm down the atmosphere in the House of Commons saying the culture in the chamber on Wednesday was toxic.
Johnson defended his use of the expression “surrender act” and he did not respond to calls for him to apologise, but he said, “We do need to bring people together and get this thing (Brexit) done.”
Johnson also said he deplored any threats to anybody, particularly female MPs.
Meanwhile Conservative Party managers have started to rearrange the timetable for their annual conference next week in Monday.
The House of Commons rejected a call for a mini-recess next week to enable Conservative politicians to leave Westminster to attend the conference.
Johnson was due to make his keynote speech on Wednesday, one of the highlights of the event. But following the decision he may now have to be at Westminster for the weekly Prime Minister’s Question time.
