BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on Boris Johnson on Tuesday to resign and demanded a new election after the Supreme Court ruled that the prime minister’s move to suspend parliament was unlawful.
Corbyn was one of several opposition lawmakers to increase the pressure on Johnson, whose hardline strategy to take Britain out of the European Union, with or without a deal, on Oct. 31 appeared to be unraveling after the court ruling.
“I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, to consider his position. And become the shortest-serving prime minister there’s ever been,” Corbyn told his party’s annual conference in the English seaside resort of Brighton.
Johnson will not quit, Downing Street sources said, but the prime minister will face an angry parliament on Wednesday, where lawmakers will try their utmost to prevent him from orchestrating a so-called no-deal Brexit.
Britain is due to leave the EU on Oct. 31, but Brexit is more uncertain than ever, with few able to predict when, how or even whether the country will exit.
To thunderous applause and shouts of “Johnson out!”, Corbyn said: “So obey the law, take no deal off the table, and have an election to elect a government that respects democracy, that respects the rule of law and brings power back to the people, not usurps it in the way that Boris Johnson has done.”
Corbyn brought his closing speech forward by a day, and will now address the party at around 1500 GMT.
The court decision took the heat off Corbyn, who just a day earlier had frustrated many of his own pro-EU lawmakers by successfully pushing through his Brexit strategy - to try to win an election, and then hold a special conference to determine how Labour should campaign in any second referendum.
Many members and lawmakers said it was time for Labour to start campaigning to ‘remain’ in the EU even before an election, which is widely expected to come before the end of the year, but they lost a chaotic vote on the conference floor.
