- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Crowds Gather Outside UK Parliament, Cheer for Lawmakers' Vote Against Johnson

© AFP 2023 / ISABEL INFANTESA pro-Brexit activist holds a placard as she protests outside the Houses of Parliament in central London on September 3, 2019.
A pro-Brexit activist holds a placard as she protests outside the Houses of Parliament in central London on September 3, 2019. - Sputnik International
Subscribe
LONDON (Sputnik) - Crowds cheered outside the UK Parliament in central London as lawmakers voted in favour of seizing the parliamentary agenda in an effort to block a no-deal Brexit.

On Tuesday night, UK lawmakers voted 328 to 301 to take control of Wednesday's parliamentary agenda, which means that they will now attempt to block a no-deal Brexit. The voting results revealed that 21 members of Johnson's Conservative Party voted against him, following which they were expelled from the party.

Glyn Secker, Secretary of Jewish Voice for Labour, expressed optimism about the vote outcome, saying a no-deal Brexit would surely lead to greater unemployment in the country.

"I think it's really good, a very good result. Like millions of others around the country we saw this as an obscene power grab by Johnson who was trying to force through a no deal Brexit which would be appalling for people and for the country," Secker said.

Peter Benson, a pro-Remain activist from Ireland, also supported the results, although he said that the UK government needed new blood, as both Johnson and the leader of the main opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, were unsuited to run the country in this critical time. 

"I feel encouraged [by the result]. ... I am encouraged that we're going to be seeing a new breed of politics in the UK. Frankly we need Boris Johnson gone and we need Jeremy Corbyn gone. There are some very, very talented people in the Labour Party but they are not on the front bench," the activist said.

Following his defeat, Johnson said he would call snap elections if the no-deal Brexit option would be blocked by lawmakers on Wednesday.

Liz Wheatley, Branch Secretary of the Camden branch of UNISON, one of the United Kingdom's largest unions, said she looked forward to snap elections and hoped Corbyn would be elected to lead the new government.

"We'd love to see a general election, definitely, so I'd like to see one and obviously like to see the Tories lose. I'd like to see a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn, it wouldn't solve everything but it would be a great start," Wheatley said.

Mick Brooks, the Political Secretary of the Labour Representation Committee, expressed anger over the political crisis his country descended into over Brexit.

“I'm very angry, I'm angry at the fact that it seems like Parliamentary democracy counts for nothing. I accept that a majority of people voted to leave, but nobody suggested three years ago that we leave without a deal. ... We're in the middle of a political and constitutional crisis. Nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow. So it's all posed on a knife-edge," Brooks said.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2016 but the withdrawal was delayed several times. After former Prime Minister Theresa May failed to come up with an acceptable plan to leave the bloc by March 29 of this year, the deadline was moved to October 31.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала