Conservative leadership race: Labour calls for general election
Labour calls for general election: Labour leader Sir Keir Stamer has called for a general election saying that it is needed to ensure “fundamental change.”
“I don’t think the answer to the stagnation of the last 12 years is to change the candidate or the leader of the Tory Party,” he told reporters.
The leadership race is now down to five candidates after Suella Braevmen was knocked out on Thursday. The next round of voting will start again on Monday, but politics isn’t switching off for the weekend – there will be three live TV debates. The debates can often be ‘make or break’ for a candidate.
The leadership contest was triggered after Boris Johnson announced his resignation, which came after a mass exodus from his ministers who started resigning following the Chris Pincher scandal.
Boris Johnson is still in No 10 as a caretaker prime minister while the election is underway.
Labour has been calling on the PM to go immediately, attempting to call a confidence vote in him and the government.
But the government has called a confidence vote in itself, allowing it to set the wording to make it easier for Tory critics of Boris Johnson to vote in favour.
Can Labour force a general election?
Labour cannot call a general election in the same way the government can, but they can attempt to force it.
Labour can call a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons, which would usually trigger a series of events under parliamentary procedure.
Labour did exactly that this week, with a motion that had been tabled on Tuesday, and the vote was expected to take place on Wednesday.
Their motion read: “This House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government while the Rt Hon Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip remains Prime Minister.”
However, the no-confidence vote was not been approved by the Government.
A Number 10 spokesperson said Sir Keir has chosen to “play politics” and a vote would not be necessary.
They said: “As the Prime Minister has already resigned and a leadership process is underway we do not feel this is a valuable use of parliamentary time.”
In response, a Labour spokesperson said: “This clapped-out Government is running scared and refusing to allow time to debate Labour’s vote of no-confidence motion. This is totally unprecedented.
“Yet again the Tories are changing the rules to protect their own dodgy mates.
“All the Tory leadership candidates should denounce this flagrant abuse of power to protect a discredited prime minister.”
What is a no-confidence vote?
tIt’s not the same as the vote PM Boris Johnson faced in June, which was done by his own party to remove him as Conservative leader.
Instead, this type of no-confidence vote can force the entire House to vote on whether they still have faith in the Prime Minister or Government to continue.
It would need a simple majority to pass, and would see the PM out before September 5 -the date set for the new elected Tory leader – and therefore PM.
If the Prime Minister wins the no-confidence motion, the Government will carry on with business as usual.
It would have been likely he would have won because not winning could have triggered a general election.
If the Prime Minister loses, however, convention says they would step down and give way to the opposition to form a Government – but if this fails, a general election would be called.
Why did the government call a vote of confidence in itself?
After blocking Labour’s attempt to call a no-confidence vote, the government tabled its own confidence motion. The government chose to do this so Boris Johnson can set the wording in such a way as to make it easier for his party to vote for it.
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