Corbyn: MPS can stop ‘smash and grab raid’ against democracy
Jeremy Corbyn has said MPS will bid to prevent Boris Johnson from shutting down Parliament when they return on Tuesday.
Speaking at the start of a three-day tour of Scotland in Dunfermline yesterday, the Labour Party leader indicated that parliamentarians would pursue legislative means to stop the Prime Minister and avert a no-deal Brexit.
On Wednesday, Mr Johnson was granted permission by the Queen to prorogue Parliament, but opposition MPS criticised the move as a “democratic outrage”.
“We will be back in Parliament on Tuesday to challenge Boris Johnson on what I think is a smash and grab raid against our democracy,” said Mr Corbyn.
“He’s trying to suspend Parliament in order to prevent a serious discussion and a serious debate to prevent a nodeal Brexit.
“What we’re going to do is try to legitimately stop him on Tuesday with a parliamentary process in order to legislate to prevent a no-deal Brexit, and also to try and prevent him shutting down Parliament during this utterly crucial period.
“The implications for this country are very, very serious. A no-deal Brexit would mean trade immediately at risk, jobs immediately at risk, the Northern Ireland border suddenly reimposed because there would be no deal whatsoever, there would be no backstop of any sort.
“And he would lead us straight into the arms of Donald Trump and the putative trade arrangement with the United States, which will be very damaging to our economy and, despite what he says, I believe will mean US healthcare corporations lining up to take over our NHS.”
Mr Corbyn indicated he remains confident there is enough time in Parliament to introduce legislation to prevent Mr Johnson from proroguing Parliament.
“We believe we can do it, otherwise we wouldn’t be trying to do it,” he said.
“I had a very constructive meeting with the leaders of all the opposition parties a couple of days ago to go through this and we’re going to do everything we can to ensure that Parliament is able to assert itself on behalf of the British people to prevent a no-deal exit from the EU.”
Earlier yesterday, Mr Corbyn also said that a Labour government would not allow another Scottish independence vote to be held in its “formative years”.
He emphasised that holding another referendum would not be a “priority” and his party would urge against it.