LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Britain’s main opposition leader on Thursday of trying to dodge an election, after rebellious lawmakers rejected the U.K. leader’s call to trigger a snap poll and moved to block his plan to leave the European Union next month without a divorce deal.

Johnson remained determined to secure an election as the only way out of Britain’s years-long Brexit impasse. His office said he would argue in a speech later that politicians must “go back to the people and give them the opportunity to decide what they want.”

Johnson called Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to endorse an election a “cowardly insult to democracy.”

(Agencies)