LONDON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered two more defeats in Britain's House of Commons Wednesday after MPs gave their backing to an emergency bill to block a no-deal Brexit.
Veteran Labour MP Hilary Benn, who put forward the bill, said if it is sanctioned in the House of Lords, Johnson has to respect the decision and uphold the law to prevent Britain leaving the European Union on October 31 without a deal.
"This House has spoken," said Benn.
Boris Johnson on Tuesday lost a key Brexit vote in the House of Commons as anti-no deal MPs take control of the parliamentary business, paving the way for Britain to ask Brussels to potentially delay the its departure from the European Union until next year if there is no deal.
It followed a vote Tuesday night when MPs ignored a plea by Johnson to back away from proceeding with what he described as a Brexit "wrecking bill". They voted instead by 328 to 301 to kick start Wednesday's legislative process.
In a snub to Johnson, 21 of his own Conservative Party MPs rebelled and voted with the opposition.
The rebels, including former Chancellor Philip Hammond and the longest serving MP, veteran politician Kenneth Clarke, were fired from the Conservative benches.
It has been a grim day for Johnson on the first days back for MPs after the long summer recess. In the space of a few hours Tuesday, Johnson lost his government majority of one when a Conservative MP defected to the minority Liberal Democrats, and then lost another 21 of his MPs who were punished for voting against his party.
And he lost a historic vote that could jeopardize his pledge for Britain to leave the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal.
With parliament due to close in a few days for the 5-week suspension which Johnson announced last week, MPs succeeded in seizing control of the order paper to race the no-deal bill through the parliamentary shutdown starts.
After the main vote backing the bill, MPs immediately went onto the next stage to vote on a number of potential amendments.
The third big vote of the night in the Commons, 327 votes to 299, gave the final thumbs up to the no-deal bill, and was also a historic victory for the opposition and rebel MPs.
Johnson, who was in the House of Commons, to listen to the debate, suffering his third big loss in just 24 hours.
The unelected House of Lords was preparing to sit all night to complete the process, ahead of Queen Elizabeth being asked to give it Royal assent later this week.
The House of Commons then turned its attention to a proposal by Orime Minister Johnson to seek the dissolution of parliament to enable a snap general election to take place, potentially in mid-October.
Johnson first has to win enough votes in the House of Commons to sanction the dissolution of parliament, with threats his plan for an early election may be opposed by opposition MPs.
