Boris Johnson's Brexit bill passes Parliament but lawmakers reject timetable

Despite saying earlier today that he'd pull his Brexit deal and call for an early election if lawmakers voted against him, Boris Johnson is standing firm. 

The Prime Minister's logic is that although the House of Commons voted against his timetable to pass the necessary legislation, the Commons did vote in favor of the deal itself. And in three years of agonizing Brexit madness, that's the first time the Commons has agreed on a Brexit outcome. 

It's a bit of a generous reading of what actually happened this evening. While it's true that Johnson's deal passed, it's only cleared the first test of parliamentary ratification.

Lawmakers might have allowed it to pass for a number of reasons, from subjecting it to scrutiny to allowing the second vote in which they could punish the Prime Minister. Those very same MPs might very well have voted down the deal at a later stage. 

However, Johnson is claiming a victory in principle. MPs have voted favorably for his deal, but denied him the chance to push it through the House of Commons on his own terms. Instead of pulling the legislation, as suggested earlier, the Prime Minister instead paused it. He stood firm on his commitment to leaving the EU on October 31, with or without a deal and said that he would discuss tonight's events with leaders across Europe. 

It's all starting to look very familiar. Johnson cannot say with any degree of certainty that he has the numbers in Parliament to clear all the hurdles. But he will press on, regardless.

Opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, offered Johnson the chance to work with his Labour party to find some kind of compromise, though that looks a non-starter. 

We've been stuck in this deadlock before and it led nowhere useful, as Theresa May would be only too happy to point out.  

It's all well and good Johnson saying that he will take the UK out of the EU on October 31. But that is a mere nine days away. Besides, opposition MPs know that European leaders are right now considering granting the UK a Brexit extension.

And with Johnson himself floating the idea of an early election, that might be too tempting a prospect for those sitting across the chamber, aching for power, to consider doing anything remotely cooperative. 

Investors are selling the British pound after lawmakers on Tuesday demanded more time to scrutinize Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit agreement with the European Union.

The pound was down nearly 0.5% against the dollar as of 2:45 p.m. ET, dipping below $1.29.

It had jumped above $1.30 as recently as Monday on optimism that Parliament would provide more clarity on the path forward this week.

The vote Tuesday bolsters the likelihood that the EU will grant another extension to allow time for more debate on Johnson's bill, a general election or even a second Brexit referendum.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has tweeted that Ireland "will now wait further developments" from the UK and EU "about next steps including timetable for the legislation and the need for an extension."

Read his tweet in full, below:

The chief spokeswoman of Jean-Claude Juncker, Mina Andreeva, has tweeted the the European Commission "takes note of tonight's results and expects the UK government to inform us about next steps."

She added that President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, "is consulting leaders on the UK's request for an extension until 31 January 2020."

Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has tweeted that the Prime Minister's "bluff of threatening to call a general election tonight was called & ignored."

Read his tweet in full, below:

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told lawmakers in the House of Commons that his Government will "pause" the Withdrawal Agreement Bill until the European Union reaches a decision about an extension.

"Our policy remains that we should not delay, that we should leave the EU on October the 31st and that is what I will say to the EU," Johnson said.

The Prime Minister was met with loud cheers when he addressed Parliament, where he told lawmakers how "joyful" it was "that for the first time in a long time that this House has accepted its responsibilities together, come together and embraced a deal."

"We should no overlook the significance of this moment," Johnson said.

He added that the Government must also now take "the only responsible course and accelerate our preparations for a no-deal outcome."

The UK's main opposition party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, made a statement immediately after Parliament rejected Boris Johnson's Brexit timetable.

"Tonight the House has refused to be bounced into debating a hugely significant piece of legislation in just two days -- with barely any notice and an analysis of the economic impact of this bill," the Labour leader said.

Corbyn asked Johnson to work with all lawmakers -- across all parties "to agree a reasonable timetable" which "would be the sensible way forward."

Lawmakers reject Boris Johnson's planned timetable for the rest of the week.

The government hoped to ram its Brexit bill through all its stages in the House of Commons by Thursday but MPs said no. Johnson said earlier if the vote failed, he would scrap his Brexit deal and push for a snap election.

MPs voted against the timetable by 322 votes to 308.

Lawmakers are now voting on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's planned timetable for the rest of the week -- which is where it could get harder for Downing Street.

The government hopes to ram its Brexit bill through all of its stages in the House of Commons this week, before it's pushed on to the House of Lords for approval as quickly as possible. If the government loses this vote, Johnson said earlier he would scrap his Brexit deal and push for a snap general election.