CORBYN RUNNING SCARED, TAUNTS BORIS

THE Prime Minister branded Jeremy Corbyn a coward last night after he turned down the offer of a general election just days after demanding one.

Amid furious scenes in the Commons, Boris Johnson rounded on the country’s ‘zombie parliament’, accusing opposition MPs of ‘paralysing’ Britain and trying to ‘wreck’ Brexit.

In a high-stakes gambit, the Prime Minister threw down the gauntlet to opposition parties, saying he would clear parliamentary time for a formal vote of no confidence today if they had the nerve to trigger an election.

A No 10 source said: ‘The public has seen enough of Parliament delaying and dithering and preventing things happening. It is put-up or shut-up time.’

But last night it appeared that neither Labour nor the other opposition parties would take up the offer.

Mr Johnson’s challenge came in an emergency Commons statement triggered by the Supreme Court’s order cancelling his decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks.

Labour MPs screamed ‘resign’ at the Prime Minister, while Tory MPs applauded him as he tore into Mr Corbyn. Mr Johnson stepped up his condemnation of the court’s ruling, saying his decision to prorogue Parliament to hold a Queen’s Speech had ‘followed the exact same process’ used by prime ministers for decades.

‘It is absolutely no disrespect to the judiciary to say I think the court was wrong to pronounce on what is essentially a political question at a time of great national controversy,’ he added.

In an outspoken attack on Parliament’s handling of Brexit, Mr Johnson said: ‘We have opposition MPs that block and delay everything, running to the courts that block and delay more. We will not betray the people who sent us here. The people at home know that this Parliament will keep delaying, it will keep sabotaging the negotiations because they don’t want a deal.’

The Prime Minister accused opposition MPs of ‘political cowardice’ after they twice turned down the offer of an election earlier this month.

And he mocked Labour’s latest refusal to back a poll. On Tuesday, Mr Corbyn called for an election but yesterday he said he did not now want one until another Brexit delay had been secured.

To Tory cheers, Mr Johnson said the Labour leader appeared to have been ‘censored’, adding: ‘Why won’t they tell him to have an election? Because they are terrified he will lose, but even more terrified by the remote possibility he might win.’

Mr Corbyn hit back, saying: ‘After yesterday’s ruling the Prime Minister should have done the honourable thing and resigned.’

MPs will vote today on whether to sanction a three-day recess to allow the Conservative Party conference to continue next week without disruption.

But with a highly partisan mood at Westminster, ministers are braced for defeat.

Mr Johnson infuriated Labour MPs by dismissing an emotional appeal from Paula Sherriff to moderate his attacks on Parliament. The MP for Dewsbury accused him of using ‘offensive, dangerous or inflammatory language’ by describing anti-No Deal legislation as a ‘surrender bill’.

Mr Johnson replied: ‘I have never heard so much humbug in my life.’

Earlier, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox launched an excoriating attack on MPs blocking an election as he branded Parliament a ‘disgrace’ and ‘as dead as dead can be’.

He said they had ‘no moral right’ to sit in the Commons having failed to make Brexit happen and branded them ‘cowardly’ for twice refusing to agree to an election.

His dramatic intervention came when MPs returned to Westminster after the Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling that the decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.

As soon as he stood up, Mr Cox came under fire from opposition MPs but rejected calls to quit for telling Mr Johnson the five-week prorogation was lawful, arguing that his advice was ‘sound’.

The Supreme Court, he argued, had ‘made new law’ and turned a ‘political convention into a legal rule’, but was entitled to do so.

After fending off barbs from across the House, Brexiteer Mr Cox exploded at MPs in a lengthy tirade for their refusal both to pass Brexit and agree to an election. ‘This Parliament is a disgrace,’ he said.

Comment – Page 18

‘We will not betray the people’