Labour MPS threaten to occupy the Commons

Labour MPS reacted to Boris Johnson’s prorogation manoeuvre by calling for parliament to be occupied, a general strike and the abolition of the monarchy.

The prime minister had announced plans to prorogue parliament for a month before a Queen’s Speech on October 14, the longest suspension for more than 40 years.

Within minutes of Jeremy Corbyn’s first response, condemning the move as ‘‘an outrage and a threat to our democracy’’, a member of his top team went further. Dawn Butler, shadow minister for women and equalities, wrote on Twitter: ‘‘No matter how you voted, Boris cannot be allowed to close parliament. I along with my colleagues will occupy parliament.’’

The call from Butler, who sits next to Mr Corbyn at prime minister’s questions most weeks, to ‘‘resist the parliament shutdown’’ was echoed by Clive Lewis, a prominent shadow Treasury minister. ‘‘If Boris shuts down parliament to carry out his no-deal Brexit, I and other MPS will defend democracy,’’ he said. ‘‘The police will have to remove us from the chamber. We will call on people to take to the streets. We will call an extraordinary session of parliament.’’

They were both outflanked, however, by Lloyd Russell-moyle, the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, who called for a general strike. ‘‘It looks more and more like the only way forward to stop our country falling into the hands of the undemocratic right,’’ he told the Daily Mirror.

Russell-moyle seized the Commons mace in December in protest against the postponement of the first vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

He continued: ‘‘If the government tries to drive no-deal through by stopping parliament from sitting, we cannot just rely on the courts and parliamentary process. We need a mass movement of resistance with marches, civil disobedience and protests in every village, town and city of this country. If the government plans to ignore the will of parliament and the people, then that is a coup. The resistance starts now.’’

Kate Osamor, a former shadow international development secretary, attacked the Queen, writing on Twitter: ‘‘The. Queen. Did. Not. Save. Us.’’

She later added: ‘‘The Queen should look at what happened to her cousin Tino ex King of Greece when you enable a right wing coup! Monarchy abolished!’’

Osamor resigned as shadow international development secretary in December, the day after throwing a bucket of water at a Times journalist and telling him that she ‘‘should have come down here with a bat and smashed your face in’’.

Johnson’s move prompted protests yesterday in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff. Thousands of demonstrators descended on Parliament Square and brought traffic to a standstill as they marched to Downing Street chanting ‘‘stop the coup’’, ‘‘save our democracy’’ and ‘‘general election now’’.

John Mcdonnell, the shadow chancellor, and Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, Corbyn’s two closest allies in the shadow cabinet, attended the protest, as did Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary.

Abbott told the protest: ‘‘This is an attack on democracy. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter exactly where you stand on Brexit.

‘‘What matters is where you stand on Tory prime ministers closing down parliament because they don’t want to give people a say.

‘‘If this was a Latin American country it would be called a coup, complete with [the] American president publicly backing it.’’

Further protests co-ordinated by the anti-brexit group Best for Britain are planned this week in Leeds, Leicester, Birmingham, Nottingham and York.

Paul Mason, a leftwing commentator, told those gathered in Westminster: ‘‘We will never have a free election in this country if Johnson, Farage and Arron Banks and the dark money of Trump and his billionaires destroy our democracy.’’

– The Times A festering war between drug dealers and taxi drivers in Pretoria exploded into city centre riots yesterday, with shops looted and set alight.

Police and firefighters were forced to retreat as crowds incensed by the shooting of a driver during clashes between the rival groups blocked parts of the city, the country’s administrative capital, with hundreds of minibus taxis. Mobs hunted down those suspected of dealing the popular heroin-based street drug known as ‘‘nyaope’’, which sells for barely 20 rand a hit – about NZ$2.30.

The business district resembled a war zone when riot police finally broke through the barricades and fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas to push back looters. Video showed crowds taking advantage of the chaos to smash windows and seize alcohol, TVS and other goods as firefighters moved in under police guard to tackle blazing shopfronts.

Many of the shops targeted are owned by foreigners from neighbouring African countries, whose businesses have previously come under attack.

Traffic was at a standstill for hours as key routes came under siege and taxi drivers seized control of buses.

Tensions erupted on Wednesday after drivers from Pretoria’s lucrative private taxi routes turned on the city’s drug dealers, resulting in a clash in which a driver was shot dead. Witnesses said he was among a group trying to stop a peddler selling drugs to a group of addicts who sleep rough near the Bloed Street taxi rank when he was shot by an unknown man.

Some taxi drivers claim that police officers profit from the drug sales, which has emboldened dealers to trade in plain sight. Drivers told the News24 website they had decided to take matters into their own hands after months of frustration over police inaction.

‘‘The reason why we are doing this is because the law enforcement agencies are failing us, due to the guys who are selling drugs,’’ one taxi driver said.

– The Times