Article snippet: You’ve heard it before: There’s Brexit-related turmoil in London as Britain faces an Oct. 31 deadline to leave the European Union. This week, tension boiled over as Parliament tried to block Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s threat to leave the EU without a trade deal in place if Parliament does not approve one. The stakes are high: former Prime Minister Theresa May resigned her post after Parliament rejected her Brexit deal three times, but without a deal, experts have warned, the country could face soaring food prices, medicine shortages, and major economic impacts. Here are the most pivotal moments from this week and an explanation of what they mean: Johnson’s promise to leave the European Union by Oct. 31, with or without a deal in place, so alarmed one Conservative lawmaker that he decided to leave the party and join the Liberal Democrats, who want to remain in the EU. MP Phillip Lee defected in dramatic fashion. As Johnson was speaking Tuesday, Lee walked across the chamber and sat down with the Liberal Democrats, several of whom had to scooch over to make room. Members of the House of Commons tend to sit with other members of their party, so Lee’s defection was immediately apparent. Lee said the party’s approach to Brexit “helped transform this once great Party into something more akin to a narrow faction, where an individual’s ‘conservatism’ is measured by how recklessly one wishes to leave the European Union.” Johnson’s grip on Parliament was so slim that ... Link to the full article to read more