TODAY in Parliament a rebel alliance of opposition MPs and a couple of Tory backbenchers are going to use Standing Order 24, or SO24 to apply for an emergency debate.
That’s not unprecedented. Any MP who wants a debate can ask for one. They get just three minutes to make a speech and if they can convince the speaker that there’s merit in their argument, it’ll be put to MPs.
Given that John Bercow, recently described Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament as “a constitutional outrage”, it seems likely that he’ll be sympathetic to the appeal.
What is unprecedented is that the debates aren’t usually binding. They’re normally just debates.
But MPs are going to try and use the emergency debate to take control of the Commons agenda for a full day.
If that happens, they will table a substantive motion to try and pass a new law to further extend Article 50.
Last night, the SNP’s Stephen Gethins, Labour MP Hilary Benn, and Tory MP Alistair Burt published a bill that, if it becomes law, will push the Brexit deadline back to next year.
The EU (Withdrawal) (No 6) Bill means that the Prime Minister would either have to pass a withdrawal agreement or get MPs to agree to a No-Deal Brexit by October 19.
If either of those fail he would then have to write to the EU requesting an extension to Article 50. The MPs say this new deadline should be January 31, 2020. Though the bill says, if both sides agree a deal after October 19 but before 31 January, Brexit could happen sooner.
Crucially, the three-month delay won’t be long enough to have another referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.
The Tories have a majority of one and a fair whack of MPs ready to rebel, which should mean that this bill gets through the Commons – despite Johnson pleading with his MPs yesterday not to chop the legs off the UK’s negotiating progress.
However, it then goes off to the House of Lords, possibly as soon as Thursday.
Unlike in the Commons, there is no time limit on emergency debates and theoretically the peers could keep on filibustering right up until Parliament is prorogued next week. If the bill is not passed through Parliament before it’s suspended then it is effectively dead.
Even then this all could be academic. If Johnson loses the vote today then, according to sources, the Government will tomorrow or on Thursday ask the Commons to vote for an early election on October 14.
Under the Fixed Term Parliament Act, there needs to be a two-thirds majority in the Commons for a snap General Election.
Given that Labour and the SNP have indicated their support for an early vote, it seems unfathomable that the Commons would reject Johnson’s plea to go to the country.
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