Minister rebuked for off-camera comments

BEN WALLACE has been admonished by Downing Street for appearing to suggest that Boris Johnson was suspending Parliament for five weeks because he has “no majority”.

The Prime Minister insisted on Wednesday that it was “completely untrue” that Brexit was behind his decision to prorogue the House of Commons for five weeks in the run-up to the Oct 31 deadline for EU withdrawal. Mr Wallace, the Defence Secretary, was filmed speaking with Florence Parly, his French counterpart, at an informal summit of defence ministers in Helsinki.

He said: “Parliament has been very good at saying what it doesn’t want. It has been awful at saying what it wants. That’s the reality. So eventually any leader has to, you know, try.”

He added: “Our system is a winner-takes-all system. If you win a parliamentary majority, you control everything, you control the timetable. There’s no written separation, so ... you are pretty much in command of the whole thing. And we’ve suddenly found ourselves with no majority and a coalition, and that’s not easy for our system.”

Asked by reporters on his way into the meeting whether he backed the prorogation of Parliament, he replied simply: “Happens every year.”

Downing Street immediately issued a rebuke, saying Mr Wallace had “misspoke” and was not involved in discussions about the Queen’s Speech.

A Downing Street source said: “The Queen’s Speech will allow us to set out an ambitious legislative programme.”