SWINDON MPs blasted the government's opposition for refusing to support an October election - but Labour say the cross-party resistance is worth applauding.

Labour, the SNP and Plaid Cymru announced that they will vote against or abstain in Monday’s vote on whether to hold a general election before the EU summit in mid-October.

They already stopped the PM’s first attempt to give the go-ahead for an election and now aim to prevent his second.

Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for south Swindon Sarah Church said: “Trying to force an election in mid-October is a transparently cynical move by the beleaguered Johnson government to set the scene for a no-deal Brexit.

"Why would they want an election when they should be negotiating with the EU? It's clear Johnson has no intention of negotiating anything.

"The unity of opposition parties against manoeuvres for a damaging no-deal Brexit is to be applauded.

"All of them want an election to take Boris down but the most imminent danger to the country is a crash-out no deal Brexit and preventing that has to come before party interests. Well done them."

Justice secretary and South Swindon MP Robert Buckland said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and others want to block Brexit. I think the people of Swindon South and the UK more generally want us to get on with Brexit without further endless, pointless delays.

"As the prime minister said, not once in history has there been an opposition party that has been given the chance to have an election and has turned it down, and there’s a question in my mind as to whether they actually trust the people.

"Boris will get a deal on October 17th and 18th and then we’ll come out of the EU.”

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson hoped that the opposition’s resistance to an October election would change over the weekend but they’ve made it clear that they’re sticking to their guns.

He said: “We remain absolutely committed to allowing the public, through a general election, to send a crystal clear message about exactly what they want to see happen to a Parliament which has failed to break the deadlock.

“It is frankly shameful that the opposition parties have spent the last two years begging for an election and now, having seen their miserable poll ratings, they are running scared.

“They can only hide from the electorate for so long. The public expect us to break the deadlock but there are such differing ideas between all the parties that it’s proving impossible to find something that a majority can agree on."

Mr Johnson wants an election to take place on October 15, ahead of the Brussels summit that weekend and before the date in the new bill when he would have to ask for the extension on October 19