The 21 Tories ejected from their party for voting with their consciences
Boris Johnson: How did it all go wrong so soon?
Dictator Johnson has gone through with his threat and withdrawn the whip from 21 now-former Conservative MPs.
The list includes extremely high-profile names including Father of the House Ken Clarke and Philip Hammond, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer until only six weeks ago (at the time of writing).
Also out are recent Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart, Oliver Letwin, Dominic Grieve, David Gauke and Nicholas Soames (who is entirely forgettable apart from being Winston Churchill’s grandson).
And Guto Bebb, who said he would vote against the government, has also been ejected for going through with it.
Others include: Richard Benyon, Steve Brine, Alistair Burt, Greg Clark, Justine Greening, Sam Gyimah, Stephen Hammond, Richard Harrington, Margot James, Anne Milton, Caroline Nokes, Antoinette Sandbach and Ed Vaizey.
Boris Johnson started his first Parliamentary session as prime minister with 311 MPs and a majority of one. He ends it with just 289 MPs and the stigma of being the first PM since Pitt the Younger to lose his very first Parliamentary vote.
It all bodes well for the future.
I don’t think we should praise these Tory rebels too much, after all, they supported one of the vilest Governments in recent history and created the very austerity culture that led to Johnson. Johnson is the very Golem they created, yet non of them are aware of this nor have the consciousness to reflect on it.
I have no respect for them.
This is a good point about these Tory “rebels”. If more join the Lib Dems, it will confirm the Lib Dems as tracking to the Right just like their behaviour in coalition with Cameron.
Much has been made of Mr. Soames, on the B.B.C., with regard to his being Winston Churchill’s grandson. Does he have no merit of his own?
I have been given ti understand that it is quite right and proper for them tio have the whip removed, for they sought, in their votes, however principled, to remove power from the Executive and hand it to somebody else. They knew what the consequences would be and did it anyway. Why are some now bleating? If they really are as principled as they claim, they should wear it like a badge of honour but that it something lacking in our politics.
No. Nicholas Soames has no merit of his own (as far as I’m concerned).
My impression was that people are laughing at BoJob for wilfully ejecting Mps, rather than making any particular judgement about them.
may i suggest mike reads up on the specifics of article 50 and what is stated in the whole document about it, i forget the name. in there is a specific statement that covers how we as a country can leave the EU. for a start parliament had to vote for article 50 to be invoked. thus, parliament must vote on the date we leave the EU. proroguing parliament to make us leave with no deal, without a vote to do just that, is not going to make us just drop out of the EU. parliament itself has to vote yes to that happening.
It’s a sticky question. In supporting the postponement of Brexit to October 31, hasn’t Parliament given its approval to leave then, no matter what? Discuss.
Article 50, of the Treaty Of £isbon, gives us 2 years, deal, or no deal, unless an extension is granted by the E.U. We’ve had two, thus far and Parliament is insisting that we ask for a third. The length of the extension and all conditions attached to it are in the gift of the E.U., NOT Parliament; Parliament seems to have forgotten this. Parliament can only agree to the extension, or accept that we leave without a deal, which it won’t, or call time on the whole process, which would have very grave consequences.
If you recall, when Theresa May last sought an extension, which she hoped would be until June, there was a possibility that the extension could be for 2 years. Emmanuel Macron an Angela Merkel were both wanting completely different things. The E.U. agreed the 31st of October. There is no guarantee that we will get the extension that we want; it could be shorter, it could be considerably longer, or it may not materialise. This could go on ad infinitum, or until the E.U. gets fed up with us and finally, says no more.
The timetable is no longer in our control, because the original Article 50 time has expired, which is why we have virtually zero negotiating leverage.