An anti-Brexit protester with a composite Union and EU flag is seen on Parliament Square outside the Houses of Parliament in central London on September 4, 2019 | Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images UK MPs back bill to block no-deal Brexit The bill would push the Brexit deadline to January 31 next year.

LONDON — U.K. MPs backed a bill to block a no-deal Brexit Wednesday and prepared to vote on whether to call a general election.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the House of Commons had “scuppered” his negotiations with the EU and it should be up to the country to decide “whether that is right.”

But opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, alongside other opposition leaders, refused to back an election until the Brexit delay officially becomes law. Under U.K. law, two-thirds of MPs would need to back a snap election for one to take place.

The vote comes the day after Johnson's government suffered a heavy defeat as MPs backed a plan to seize control of the parliamentary timetable — something usually controlled by the government — in order to enable them to block a no-deal Brexit. The prime minister will now push for a general election in the hope of winning a majority and regaining control of the Brexit process.

The bill, which if passed by the House of Lords will force Johnson to request a Brexit extension to January 31 next year, was backed in the Commons with a majority of 28.

But before it was passed, an amendment was added in a moment of bizarre House of Commons procedure, which would allow MPs a vote on a tweaked version of the deal clinched by Theresa May. The amendment passed because there were no tellers — MPs appointed to count the votes.

The amendment, laid by Labour MP Stephen Kinnock and backed by 17 of his colleagues, would make passing the tweaked May deal government policy. That deal, which included a Commons vote on a second EU referendum, was hammered out after days of talks with the opposition Labour party but the former prime minister was forced to resign before it could be put to a vote.

After the bill passed its final Commons stage, Johnson implored MPs to back his motion for a general election, insisting he would never ask Brussels for a Brexit delay.

“The country must now decide whether the Leader of the Opposition [Jeremy Corbyn] or I goes to the negotiations in Brussels on October 17 to sort this out," he said. "Everybody will know that if the right honorable gentleman were to go there … he would beg for an extension, he would accept whatever Brussels demands. And then we would have years more dither and delay, yet more arguments over Brexit and no resolution to the uncertainty that currently bedevils this country and our economy.”

He added: “I don’t want an election, the public don’t want an election, the country doesn’t want an election but this house has left no other option for letting the public decide who they want as prime minister.”

But Corbyn shot back: “The offer of an election today is a bit like the offer of an apple to Snow White from the Wicked Queen. What he is offering is not an apple of the election but the poison of a no-deal. Let this bill pass, and gain royal assent, then we will back an election so we do not crash out with a no-deal exit from the European Union.”

One MP said Labour was split over when it should back an election. Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer is said to favor holding one after the October 31 Brexit date, while Corbyn is said to favor a public poll as soon as the bill forcing a Brexit delay is passed.

The bill will be debated in the House of Lords on Thursday and must be completed on Monday at the latest to avoid being scuppered by the impending suspension of parliament. Peers launched into a marathon debate on Wednesday over whether to impose a time limit on its assessment of the Brexit delay bill.

Tory peers tabled dozens of amendments in a bid to filibuster the discussion, with the House expected to sit until the early hours of the morning. A Labour official in the Lords said: “I left the house this morning with a change of clothes and toiletries and everything.”

They insisted the government was “complicit” in the filibustering of the debate, but a Downing Street spokesman said what happened in the Lords was a question for the Lords.

At a meeting of Conservative parliamentarians, one pro-Brexit MP, Daniel Kawczynski, told Johnson he should guarantee that the whip will never be restored to 21 Tory rebels who voted against their own government to allow time for the delay bill. On Wednesday night they were banned from standing as Tory candidates at the next election.

But Kawczynski said he was shouted down by colleagues, who demanded the whip be restored to the rebels. A Downing Street source insisted MPs had been warned of the consequences before the vote on Tuesday. But they said other Tories who voted against the government on the actual bill stages would not lose the whip. In the end, Tory MP Caroline Spelman was the only extra rebel.

Earlier, Chancellor Sajid Javid was accused of laying out a “grubby electioneering stunt” by his Labour counterpart John McDonnell as he announced a one-year spending review full of promises designed to put pressure on the opposition.

In another sign that Johnson's government is gearing up for an election, Javid declared the “end of austerity” as he revealed that no government department will be cut in 2020-2021, announcing an overall increase in spending of £13.8 billion compared to the current year.