This was a good news/bad news day for Boris Johnson. The good news was that for the very first time the House of Commons has given its in-principle support to a Brexit withdrawal agreement. This is a major psychological step and one on which few would have bet even two weeks ago. Not only did the prime minister win, he won by 30 votes.
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• UK Parliament backs Boris Johnson's Brexit bill
The bad news is that, by voting down his insultingly truncated timetable designed to secure passage of the legislation in just three days, MPs have almost certainly pushed Brexit beyond the October 31 deadline that Mr Johnson said was inviolate. More important than a few days slippage is that they now have the time to pursue some seriously wrecking amendments to the bill.
Fear of this is what pushed Number 10 into its now rather typical intemperate threat to pull the whole bill if it lost that vote and to force an election. In fact, MPs' rejection of the ludicrously short timetable was entirely reasonable. They would have been remiss to do otherwise. One cannot understate this government's ability to shoot itself in the foot with its parliamentary tactics but, with a majority of 30 on the second reading of this legislation, Mr Johnson would be foolish to pull the bill now. It would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Speaking after the vote, Mr Johnson in fact stopped short of that threat, saying only that he would pause the legislation until EU leaders had decided on an extension. His new ultimatum is that he will not continue unless that extension is short and he is counting on the EU playing ball. The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn offered to agree a more suitable timetable, but the prime minister ignored the offer. This was churlish. If he does wish to progress he will need to reach agreement with the opposition. In any case his threat to suspend the process and force an election if the EU insists on a January extension is an empty one — he cannot get an election unless the opposition parties grant him one.