Re: Brexit 2: Happy Halloween
The new speaker of the House of Commons is Lindsay Hoyle, Labour MP for Chorley. As is customary, he will resign from the party and take up a non-partisan role.
It is customary for the outgoing speaker to be elevated to the House of Lords (or at least be offered the opportunity) when their term ends, but BoJo has said there will be no such offer coming for him. The whole reason Bercow stepped down is because BoJo was a spiteful little ***** and broke with tradition by announcing the Tory party would field a candidate in Bercow's constituency at the next election. It is another custom in British politics for all major parties not to run a candidate against the sitting Speaker. Rather than allow BoJo to set a dangerous precedent by breaking that tradition, Bercow resigned.
Nigel Farage previously ran for MP in seven different elections (and lost spectacularly each time - including once receiving fewer votes than a man dressed as a dolphin) but has decided not to stand for election because he wants to support all 600+ candidates the Brexit Party will field. This is news to the Brexit Party because it has not decided whether to contest the election or stick with BoJo. Mathematically, this should be a no-brainer. Allow the Tories to run unopposed on the right, have the Lib Dems and Labour split the left vote and run Brexit Party candidates in about 30 Labour constituencies that voted Leave to help the Tory win that seat. That could return a parliament with 350+ Tory seats and a solid working majority. However, that requires the Brexit Party leaders to trust BoJo, which they aren't inclined to do. No one trusts him, not even his friends. The Brexit Party might decide this is an opportunity to seize power and guarantee the UK's future. Entering the election would cause chaos, mostly to the Tories, but (in their eyes) could lead to a Brexit Party takeover of parliament, or at the very least lead to a coalition government of Tory/Brexit thus guaranteeing a no-deal Brexit at the end of next year. The risk is that by contesting the election, you make a possibility of a Prime Minister Corbyn or even Jo Swinson. BoJo balked Farage's demand to drop his Brexit deal, prompting his announcement. Brexit Party leadership might be more understanding - or at least practical.
