Thread by @faisalislam

There is some truth to this - the Fixed Term Parliament Act does clearly give the incumbent PM the role to set the date of the election, ie potentially after Oct 31st... but the physics of this manoeuvre, indeed even being seen to brief it could reap quite the opposite by Sept...

Here is the relevant bit of the FTPA - section 7. Even after a hypothetical loss of a vote of no confidence, and 14 days elapsing without regaining it “the polling day for election is to be appointed by HM by proclamation upon the recommendation of the PM”...

... but if seriously contemplated, you’d have a Government headed by a PM who lost confidence vote on 2nd Parliamentary sitting of his office, having never won one, nor won an election majority, pushing through a significant irreversible outcome, explicitly voted against by HoC..

... so technical legal path is there - but really? At this point people reach for the Cabinet Manual... and this is relevant bit which interacts with FTPA -

2.19: “there is a 14 day period during which an alternative Government can be formed from HoC as presently constituted”

... so in situation where a No Confidence vote was lost, there is no doubt, if it was clearly the case that an alternative PM could command the confidence of the House - the sitting PM must advise HM to call for him or her. It’s not the law, but it is the system...

so I’m presuming those saying there is no route/time to stop the PM going for No Deal in fact, not unreasonably believe that an alternative multi party anti no deal Government is far fetched and implausible. Can’t imagine they believe convention on confidence could be discarded

... but (& since June 2017 I have written about a bloc of 30 Tory MPs who I thought would do whatever it takes to stop No Deal Brexit - though some are now ministers)... the sort of situation where far fetched and implausible, become plausible and planned - more headlines like👆🏽