Boris Johnson fails to win the backing of enough MPs to hold a snap election next month, falling short of the two-thirds majority required by law

Live updates: https://t.co/UcpUupmXtg pic.twitter.com/iGcgvXkkgn

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) September 4, 2019

United Kingdom, 2019/20

Manager: Boris Johnson

Form: LLL

— Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) September 4, 2019

Am hearing many Tory MPs, including majority of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, believe expelling two former Chancellors, moderates and long serving Tories like @NSoames was huge error. “We’ve got to bring them back if we want to win the coming election” said one. Watch this space

— Lionel Barber (@lionelbarber) September 4, 2019

Before anti No Dealers get excited there’s the possibility of the unelected House of Lords filibustering the Benn bill which would be sub-optimal for the anti No Dealers. The elephant in the room is that no one can feel truly confident that Jeremy Corbyn might not screw this up somehow.

Labour press release says Labour will back an election once rebel bill gets Royal Assent.
That directly contradicts what Keir Starmer told Labour MPs this morning and the Commons this afternoon.
Labour MP: "That is not party policy." pic.twitter.com/ciTZF41H9t

— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) September 4, 2019

Whatever the right and wrongs I’m not sure the optics of the opposition denying a General Election are good.

— Keiran Pedley (@keiranpedley) September 4, 2019

These are extraordinary times in the politics of this country, so much so that PB didn’t cover Philip Lee’s defection to the Lib Dems yesterday, it probably wasn’t even in the top ten political stories of the day, which is in stark contrast in the last 15 years when defections dominated PB threads for days and weeks.

The future of this country might well be determined by who is less pooh at political strategy in the next few days, Boris Johnson & Dominic Cummings or Jeremy Corbyn & Seumas Milne?

TSE