General election: Boris Johnson’s government rejects Lib Dem and SNP bid for earlier poll

Opposition parties accused of seeking to thwart prime minister’s Brexit deal – by removing any chance of parliamentary approval

The government has rejected a joint Liberal Democrat-SNP push for an earlier general election on 9 December, branding it “a stunt”.

Nicky Morgan, the culture secretary, accused the two opposition parties of seeking to thwart Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal by removing any chance of parliamentary approval before the poll.

“If the SNP and Lib Dems really want there to be an election, they can vote for our motion tomorrow,” Ms Morgan said.

The prime minister has offered MPs a few days to approve the “paused” Withdrawal Agreement Bill, before an election on 12 December.

In contrast, the Lib Dem-SNP proposal is for an immediate bill for an election – which would only come forward if the EU has guaranteed an Article 50 extension to the end of January.

Both now appeared doomed to fail, with Labour opposition set to deny Mr Johnson the two-thirds majority he needs in the Commons on Monday to trigger a poll.

It points to the stalemate continuing, with the government refusing to bring back the bill without an election to follow, fearing sabotage – a threat raised by Philip Hammond, moments later.

The Scottish Nationalists and the Lib Dems have sent a joint letter to Brussels urging it to grant a Brexit delay until 31 January or later, to remove the “risk of a devastating no-deal Brexit”.

They have drawn up a bill that would allow a 9 December election with a simple majority of MPs, by-passing the need for two-thirds support under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

Three days before the prime minister’s proposed date, crucially, more students would still at university to cast their votes in Remain-supporting target swing seats.

Labour appeared blindsided by the move, Jon Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, branding it “ridiculous”, while shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the party would “look at it”.

Without the support of one of the two major parties, it has no prospect of success and, without government backing, may not even be tabled.

James Cleverly, the Conservative party chair, underlined its opposition to the “gimmick”, saying: “We put forward proposals for a general election first, but, also, the delivery of Brexit.

“We’re not going to listen to two parties who explicitly said they want to stop Brexit from happening. We’re not going to be complicit in them stopping Brexit from happening.”

Jo Swinson, the Lib Dem leader, said Mr Johnson could not be trusted on an election date. “This is a man who is prepared to say anything,” Ms Swinson told the BBC.

“He doesn’t do what he says. The advantage of this bill is that it enshrines the date in law.”

Ms Swinson said the “time pressure” involved in securing an election before a delayed Article 50 deadline meant the party would not pursue amendments such as votes for 16-year-olds to the Bill.

The SNP’s leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, said that opposition parties needed to work together to “remove this dangerous Tory government from office”.