A little over one month ago, on 28 July 2019, Jeremy Corbyn committed to vote for an election “if the government puts down such a motion” under the Fixed Terms Parliament Act. Today Labour is expected to do the opposite of what their leader promised…

“Well an election takes about seven weeks from the point at which Parliament votes to hold it, under the Fixed Term Parliament Act, and two thirds of all MPs have to vote for it, but if the government puts down such a motion we would support it because we think the public do deserve an election. We have a government that doesn’t really have a majority, that has a deal made with the DUP some years ago, and cannot win votes in Parliament.”

Labour now seem to have totally abandoned their conference motion passed last year by an overwhelming majority of their delegates to push for an “immediate general election” if talks end in no-deal.

“Should Parliament vote down a Tory Brexit deal or the talks end in no-deal, Conference believes this would constitute a loss of confidence in the Government. In these circumstances, the best outcome for the country is an immediate General Election that can sweep the Tories from power.”

Whatever happened to their boasts of internal party democracy? Or for that matter, external democracy..?