Johnson Faces Backclash for Suspending UK Parliament

The UK prime minister’s successful bid to shut the parliament for a month before the Brexit deadline marks a new low in the exit process and undermines the legislature’s democratic role.

The home affairs spokesman for the Green Party, Shahrar Ali, made this known in an interview with Sputnik.

Queen Elizabeth has approved Boris Johnson’s plan to suspend the parliament starting shortly after lawmakers return to work in mid-September until October 14, leaving them two weeks to pass any laws to prevent a no-deal exit from the European Union (EU).

Britain would leave the EU on October 31 without a negotiated settlement.

Johnson, who became premier in July, said the break was necessary for his government to be able to formally launch its legislative agenda for the coming year.

“This feels like a very cynical time in politics, where democratic means and mandate are being severely tested, Ali said.

According to him, “Attempts to limit time in the primary debating chamber is a new low, even for this government.

“You could half respect a PM pressing for their preferred outcome, in all conscience, but to artificially reduce parliamentary time would be hugely undermining of the very institution which it is claimed, under Brexit, should reign supreme,” Ali said.

He slammed the Conservative leader for trying to “sabotage anticipated parliamentary business” in a bid to unilaterally force the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union despite Brexit being chiefly about “sovereignty and our collective ownership over our destinies.”

“To attempt to bypass or block participatory democracy in a representative chamber in the name of a wider democratic goal is contradictory and despotic.

The PM should be actively putting options to Parliament, not seeking to ignore their will,” Ali stressed.

He said that British politicians should continue seeking solutions to the impasse over the UK-EU withdrawal agreement alongside Brussels.

The European Union has so far refused to reopen talks after Johnson insisted that the backstop plan for avoiding a hard Irish border should be dropped.

“We need to act maturely as politicians to seek positive solutions alongside our near neighbors. If a deal is to be renegotiated, however narrowly, both UK and EU parliaments will have to be encouraging and maximizing opportunities for exercise of political debate; not attempting to stonewall it,” he said.

The prime minister is facing down a storm of outrage over his decision, given many of his political opponents believe he is actively attempting to limit the parliament’s ability to debate, modify or even potentially stop his country leaving the European Union on Oct. 31.

Johnson’s move may have also placed his narrow majority in parliament under added strain, given opposition parties may resort to closer cooperation in a bid to trigger a vote of no confidence in his administration.

As of Tuesday, over 160 lawmakers had already signed the so-called “Church House Declaration” which vows to resist any effort to impinge on the parliament’s ability to convene.

Following the backlash Johnson is over his plans to suspend parliament, the leader of his party in Scotland resigned yesterday.

Ruth Davidson cited family reasons as the main reason for her departure, but also highlighted the “conflict” over Brexit in her resignation letter.

Davidson had been a prominent campaigner for Britain to remain in the EU, and had clashed with Johnson over the issue.

“While I have not hidden the conflict I have felt over Brexit, I have attempted to chart a course for our party which recognises and respects the referendum result, while seeking to maximize opportunities and mitigate risks for key Scottish businesses and sectors,” Davidson wrote.

She cited family reasons as the “biggest change” that had caused her to reconsider her role.

“I fear that having tried to be a good leader over the years, I have proved a poor daughter, sister, partner and friend,” she wrote.

Her resignation comes amid widespread outrage at Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament.

Thousands of people took to the streets of London, Edinburgh and other large cities to protest the plan to suspend parliamentary sessions from mid-September until mid-October.

Critics have deemed it an attempt by Johnson to rob opposition lawmakers of time to block a no-deal Brexit, meaning

Commons leader Jacob ReesMogg, a leading Conservative eurosceptic, said that the outrage was “phoney,” and had been “created by people who don’t want us to leave the EU and are trying very hard to overturn the referendum result.”

“Parliament wasn’t going to be sitting for most of this time anyway – this is completely constitutional and proper,” Rees-Mogg said.

Parliamentary speaker, John Bercow, was one of a string of politicians to slam the plan as “unconstitutional.”

An online petition calling for the British government not to suspend parliament has gathered more than one million signatures.

The threshold an online petition has to reach in order to be debated in the House of Commons – 100,000 signatures – was surpassed just a few hours after it was set up on Wednesday.

Ireland’s Minister for European Affairs Helen McEntee said on Thursday a no-deal Brexit was “more likely” after Johnson’s move to suspend parliament.

Speaking on national broadcaster RTE’s Morning Ireland programme, McEntee said what had happened in Britain over the last three years was unprecedented.

“The only vote where there has been a majority is to avoid a no deal and yet we now have a prime minister who is suspending parliament for four to five weeks,” she said.