The UK's first December general
election in nearly a century
was called by Boris Johnson to
end Britain's Brexit crisis.
We're going to get Brexit done.
Get Brexit done.
Get Brexit done, now.
And yet, despite the PM's
powerful "get Brexit done"
catchphrase, whoever
wins on December
the 12th will face many months
of difficult negotiations.
Despite his offer of an
oven-ready Brexit deal,
the Tory manifesto
offers no real detail
on how Mr Johnson plans
to avoid another hard exit
next December.
All it says is that the
Tories will negotiate a trade
agreement next year,
after the UK leaves
the EU at the end of
January, and will not
extend the implementation
period beyond December 2020.
The problem is, the type of
trade deal the prime minister
wants - outside the EU single
market and the customs union,
and with the freedom to
break away from EU standards
- will only make it harder
and limit the UK's access
to key European markets.
And by refusing to extend
the transition period,
Boris Johnson is handing
Brussels the upper hand
in the upcoming talks.
His critics say the timetable
would be impossibly tight
and could lead Britain
towards another Brexit crisis
at the end of next year, if the
UK left the EU without a trade
deal.
Compared to Boris Johnson's
simple message on Brexit,
Jeremy Corbyn's is
complicated and ambiguous.
Labour has a clear plan to
get Brexit sorted within six
months.
In six months.
Within six months.
In a manifesto dedicated to
the party's radical programme
of state reform, Labour says
it will get Brexit sorted
by securing a new deal with the
EU within three months and then
putting that to a second
referendum within six months,
offering the public the chance
to vote for their new deal
or to Remain.
Labour's proposed deal would
keep the UK much closer
to the EU through a new customs
union, single market alignment,
and equivalence on workers'
and citizens' rights
and the environment.
What isn't clear
is what position
the party's leadership would
take in the second referendum,
although Mr Corbyn says
he would be neutral.
One of the features
of this campaign
has been the collapse of support
for the Liberal Democrats,
the unapologetic
party of Remain.
Liberal Democrats will be
fighting to stop Brexit.
Stop Brexit.
Stop Brexit.
If elected - a long
shot, to say the least
- leader Jo Swinson says
she will halt Brexit
without a second people's vote.
This, she says, would deliver
a £50bn boost to the UK economy
by 2025, money which would
instead be spent on education
and tackling
inequality and poverty.
But the move to stop
Brexit is costing them
with voters, who see
it as undemocratic.
Despite this, Jo Swinson
could still be the kingmaker
if the election ends
in a hung parliament,
with neither Labour or the
Tories able to form a majority
government.
So far, she has
ruled out working
with Jeremy Corbyn
or Boris Johnson,
but she could change her
mind if the chance is
there to secure a second
referendum or a soft Brexit.
Whatever happens on the
morning of December the 13th,
it's hard to see how the
vote will get Brexit done.
