One of the biggest and most frequently told lies in the Brexit debate is that there is no majority in parliament for a no-deal exit. It’s true to say that parliament has voted to deplore the idea of leaving the EU without a deal – but it has yet to vote for anything to put in its place. But by agreeing, as most MPs did, to trigger the Article 50 process on 29 March 2017 without first putting any limits or brakes on the government, they in effect voted for a no-deal Brexit, with no guarantee that they would be able to prevent it.
One of the ways that Boris Johnson convinced Conservative MPs who feared that his Brexit strategy would result in an election was by arguing that parliament, for all its opposition to a no-deal Brexit in theory, would quail from the necessary measures to prevent it. For what’s it’s worth, Johnson’s strategy consists of making a series of demands that cannot be achieved through a negotiated deal with the EU.
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