Liberal Democrats leader Jo Swinson: Of course, we want an election but there is more at stake here

It has not been a good week for our Prime Minister.

Boris Johnson lost his majority in Parliament when Dr Phillip Lee crossed the floor to join the Lib Dems. He lost his first three votes in the House of Commons. And he even lost the support of his own brother, who made it clear that he doesn’t trust him to put the country first.

With the Scottish Conservatives binding themselves ever closer to Boris Johnson, and Scottish Labour in confusion, there is a gap at the centre of Scottish politics that the Lib Dems are determined to speak for.

We are on the side of the majority of Scots who voted no to independence, and on the side of the majority of Scots who want to remain in the EU.

We are ready for an election, and we are confident of significant gains.

So why, with the Conservatives on the ropes, are the Lib Dems and other opposition parties not supporting the PM’s motion for a General Election?

It’s because there is a spanner in the works. Something bigger is at stake. If Parliament votes for an election to take place, it is the Prime Minister who gets to set the date. And there is no doubt that Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings would use this as an opportunity to crash us out of the European Union while there is no Parliament sitting to stop him.

We cannot let Boris Johnson use an election to tip the country into a dangerous no-deal Brexit, which neither the people nor their representatives support.

Therefore, we must secure the extension to Article 50 before any election takes place.

When the time comes to tackle the Conservatives and SNP, we’ll be ready. But to prevent Boris Johnson’s disastrous no-deal plot, we’ll be putting the national interest first and voting against his election tomorrow.