And speculation had arisen that certain factions of his cabinet were not in favour of holding an early general election in order to break the ongoing political deadlock that has gripped the UK since the public voted to sever ties with Brussels in 2016’s referendum. But just how will the stalemate end? Sputnik spoke with UKIP founder Alan Sked to get his views on the matter.
Sputnik: Will the UK leave the EU on the 31st of October?
Alan Sked: That’s looking very unlikely, the only way it could is if the European Union refused to grant another extension to Article Fifty, but that is also highly unlikely.
Sputnik: Should a general election be held? What would the outcome likely be?
Alan Sked: I think there should be a general election because this parliament has proved to be more or less impossible to deal with and won’t allow the government to do its job, so there should be one. If a general election were to be held; it looks from polling evidence as if the Tories would get a majority.
Sputnik: Do you think that a full Brexit is still possible? Or is the UK heading towards a soft departure from the EU?
Alan Sked: If there’s a general election and Boris Johnson gets a good majority; then he would come back and put his deal through parliament, it might be amended but it would be more or less along the lines of the deal that we have now, that he’s signed up for with the EU.
It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, there are all sorts of flaws in it, but given the way that parliamentary arithmetic is just now, it was the only one that had any chance of getting a majority.
It got a majority, but even then there are so many people who want to amend it in different ways that it could change so radically, that Boris Johnson would have to withdraw the deal because it wouldn’t be in any way like the one he signed up to with the EU.
