'Abuse of power’: Corbyn calls on UK’s top civil servant to stop BoJo’s no-deal Brexit

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has pleaded with Britain’s most senior civil servant to prevent PM Boris Johnson ramming through a no-deal Brexit during a snap general election campaign that may take place this autumn.

Corbyn has taken to twitter after writing a letter to Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, accusing Johnson of plotting an “unprecedented, unconstitutional and anti-democratic abuse of power.”

It comes after it emerged on Thursday that the Tory government is preparing to call an election “days after” the Brexit deadline date of October 31 –  if a majority of UK MPs vote no-confidence in his administration, according to the Financial Times.

In his letter, Corbyn demanded clarification of the rules around ‘purdah,’ the specific period of time during an election campaign in the UK when the government is precluded from making major policy announcements.

Corbyn asked Sedwill to confirm that, if Britain is scheduled to exit the EU during a general election campaign, then Johnson’s government must seek an extension to [the EU Treaty’s] article 50 – after which time an incoming administration would be allowed to take a decision on Brexit.

On Thursday Johnson failed to confirm whether he would resign as PM if he lost a vote of no-confidence and instead insisted that what MPs should do “is honour the mandate of the people and leave the EU on 31 October.”

Whether a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in the government would prove successful is another matter, however, but with a tiny majority of just one, it’s entirely possible Johnson may be forced into calling an election, nearly two years earlier than currently scheduled.

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