Labour kicks off preparations for December election

MPs have been summoned to an election training session, in recognition of the fact that a snap poll is happening whether they like it or not.

By Patrick Maguire

Opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves his residence in north London on October 28, 2019. - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a fresh push on Monday for an early election as EU leaders prepare to back yet another Brexit delay, just days before the departure deadline. (Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Though it is far from clear whether the Labour leadership will back a one-line bill providing for the December election they refused to grant Boris Johnson this evening, they are privately reconciled to its inevitability.

In a message to the parliamentary Labour party – seen by the New Statesman – opposition MPs have been summoned to a special election training session with Andrew Whyte, Labour’s head of external governance, on Wednesday afternoon.

The party has also invited its MPs to a session on the dissolution of parliament hosted by the Commons authorities.

Despite deep disquiet in the Parliamentary Labour Party, and the leadership’s reluctance to commit to voting for any election legislation tabled by Boris Johnson or its opposition rivals in the SNP and Liberal Democrats, Jeremy Corbyn and his MPs know a simple majority for a pre-Christmas, pre-Brexit election exists.

So, as much as they would prefer it not to be the case, the leadership and PLP have no option but to begin preparations in earnest: a snap poll is coming whether they like it or not.