Anger on the streets at Johnson’s Brexit move
PM accused of ‘undemocratic’ tactics as he gets the Queen to suspend Parliament
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has manoeuvred to give his political opponents even less time to block a chaotic no-deal Brexit before the October 31 withdrawal deadline, winning Queen Elizabeth’s approval to suspend Parliament. His critics are outraged.
There were protests across the country, a legal challenge has been launched and a petition against the move has gained more than a million signatures.
The Government said there would still be time to debate Brexit despite the five-week suspension in September and October.
But critics said it was an “undemocratic” attempt to stop MPs from blocking no-deal.
Though Johnson previously had refused to rule out such a move, the timing of the decision took lawmakers — many of whom are on vacation — by surprise. Johnson yesterday insisted he was taking the step so he could outline his domestic agenda, and he shot down the notion that he was curbing debate, saying there would be “ample time” to discuss Brexit and other issues.
Lawmakers reacted with fury. John Bercow, Speaker of the Lower House of Commons, said: “Shutting down Parliament would be an offence against the democratic process and the rights of parliamentarians as the people’s elected representatives. Surely at this early stage in his premiership, the Prime Minister should be seeking to establish rather than undermine his democratic credentials and indeed his commitment to parliamentary democracy.”
The main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote to the Queen to protest “in the strongest possible terms on behalf of my party and I believe all the other opposition parties are going to join in with this”.
The House of Commons will convene from September 3 to 10 and then was scheduled to go on a break until October 9 — although lawmakers had
suggested they might cancel that break and stay in session because of the Brexit crisis.
Johnson said he decided to ask the Queen to give her speech that outlines the government’s legislative agenda on October 14, and she approved suspending Parliament for a total of 32 days between September 12 and October 14. That makes it unlikely the lawmakers would have enough time to pass laws blocking the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union without a negotiated divorce deal by October 31.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell tweeted: “Make no mistake, this is a very British coup.”
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit official, called Johnson’s move “sinister”. The pound plunged on the news, down to US$1.2196 from almost US$1.2300 the previous day.
The EU is adamant it will not renegotiate the agreement struck with former Prime Minister Theresa May on the terms of Britain’s departure and the framework of future relations. Without such a deal, Britain faces a chaotic Brexit that economists warn would disrupt trade by imposing tariffs and customs checks between Britain and the bloc, send the value of the pound plummeting and plunge the UK into recession. May resigned in defeat after failing — three times — to secure Parliament’s backing for her divorce deal.
Hundreds of people packed College Green outside Parliament, waving EU flags and placards to express their anger, while 25 bishops from the Church of England released an open letter expressing their worries about the “economic shocks” of a no-deal Brexit on the poor and other vulnerable people.
A petition on a government website demanding that Parliament not be suspended had gotten more than 1 million signatures by last night; petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures are considered for debate.
Lawmakers already are asking a Scottish court to rule that suspending Parliament is illegal. If that fails, proEU legislators are also planning to try to pass a law banning a no-deal Brexit, although the Government has now sharply limited their time to do that.
Another option is to bring down the Government with a noconfidence vote. That would spark a 14-day period in which Johnson could try to overturn the result. If he failed, there would be a general election — but the Government believes it would not have to be held until after
the October 31 Brexit deadline.
During that key 14 days after a noconfidence vote, another lawmaker could try to win Parliament’s backing in a vote. If they succeeded, Johnson should, in theory, have to step down and let the winner form a government.
But these rules were introduced in a 2011 law and have never been tested, leaving room for argument.
“If Parliament is suspended to suit Boris Johnson, it’s not just going to be suspended from discussing Brexit. We could go to war,” Labour spokeswoman on legal issues Shami Chakrabarti told the BBC. “People will work together to stop this unconstitutional suspension of Parliament and we will get greater unity on that even than
on stopping a no-deal Brexit.”
Opposition lawmakers have declared that they will join forces to try to stop a departure from the EU without an agreement, setting up a legislative challenge to Johnson and his past promises to complete the divorce deal.
Some 160 lawmakers have signed a declaration pledging “to do whatever
is necessary” to prevent Johnson from bypassing Parliament.
Johnson has told European officials it won’t be possible to agree a deal on Britain’s departure from the bloc without the removal of controversial language on a “backstop” aimed at avoiding the return of a border between EU member Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland.