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The claim here that leaving the EU as per the decision of the EU referendum & Parliament's legislation is a change & that an extension wld be the status quo must be just flat wrong. And it's not a matter of interpretation. The state of nature is to leave. constitution-unit.com/2019/08/08/can…
Leaving the EU during a General Election campaign would not be a "policy decision" any more than paying benefits or taking taxes is. It would simply be implementing the law as it stands.
Suppose that in a finance bill a govt introduce a rise in income tax to apply from a certain date, & then later it happened that there was a General Election campaign during which taxes rose. The tax rises wldn't be cancelled because of the campaign.
The convention is that during a General Election a govt cannot change laws. That includes not changing the enacting of decisions already taken. That is absolutely unambiguous & not a matter of debate. And it entails no change to Art 50 during a General Election campaign. Period.
If Parliament wants to change the law on Brexit it needs to change the law. It cannot bring the govt down, triggering a General Election, & then demand that as a consequence the govt shld change laws Parliament has already enacted & not amended itself.
Formally speaking there is no ambiguity on where Parliament stands. It voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU & it voted overwhelmingly to reject the Withdrawal Agreement. So Parliament's clear formal position is that we leave with no deal. That's not sophistry or mere technicality
Let's take a concrete recent example. On 19 March 1997 the Finance Act 1997 received Royal Assent. That cut the basic rate of income tax 1p from April 1997. The actual change occurred during the 1997 General Election campaign.+
+There is no doubt that a tax cut is a change of an enduring nature that a govt cld not introduce during a General Election campaign. There is no doubt that tax levels were a politically significant issue during the campaign.+
+Despite this the income tax cut was enacted during the 1997 campaign. Why? Because that change, including the date, was what Parliament had legislated for. In exactly the same way a 31 Oct Brexit during a GE campaign will simply enact the law & the govt is forbidden to change it
