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‘This is a dictatorship’: politicians react to Boris Johnson’s plan to suspend parliament – video

Corbyn demands talks with Queen over plan to suspend parliament

This article is more than 4 years old

Labour leader will oppose move that he says pits the monarchy against majority of MPs

Jeremy Corbyn has demanded a meeting with the Queen along with other privy councillors to object to Boris Johnson’s plan to prorogue parliament, saying the monarchy was being set directly against the majority in the Commons.

Corbyn’s request to see the monarch, which comes alongside a similar request from the Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, has come too late to affect any decision. Downing Street said ministers from the privy council had already had the timetable for prorogation approved at a meeting in Balmoral.

In his letter to the Queen, the Labour party leader said there was “a danger that the royal prerogative is being set directly against the wishes of a majority of the House of Commons”.

He said the granting of Johnson’s request would “deprive the electorate of the opportunity to have their representatives hold the government to account, make any key decisions and ensure that there is a lawful basis for action taken”.

Johnson’s proposal to suspend parliament for five weeks from early September sent shockwaves through opposition MPs and no-deal opponents in Westminster on Wednesday, several of whom described it as reckless, constitutionally wrong and a threat to democracy.

Among those voicing dismay were a number offormer cabinet ministers opposed to a no-deal Brexit, including the former chancellor Philip Hammond, who called it a “constitutional outrage”.

It would be a constitutional outrage if Parliament were prevented from holding the government to account at a time of national crisis. Profoundly undemocratic.

— Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) August 28, 2019

The former justice secretary David Gauke said it was a dangerous precedent and suggested Conservative MPs should look at the wider perspective. “Put to one side your views of a no-deal Brexit. Imagine that Jeremy Corbyn is PM, pursuing a policy that is unpopular in parliament and in the country. At a crucial moment he finds a way to evade parliamentary scrutiny for several weeks,” he tweeted.

Other Conservative backbenchers voiced unease. Simon Hoare said the move was “an executive seeking to abuse one of its (perfectly proper) powers”.

The former Conservative MP Nick Boles, who sits as an independent, tweeted: “The government’s plan to prorogue parliament until 14 October clarifies the choice for MPs who want to stop a no-deal Brexit. If they don’t support legislative steps next week, there will be no second chance. Hopefully this will stiffen backbones and concentrate minds.”

MPs have suggested a number of increasingly radical proposals aimed at halting the prorogation of parliament. The shadow equalities minister, Dawn Butler, and the shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis, suggested they may refuse to vacate parliament once it is suspended.

“If Boris Johnson thinks he can suspend parliament and force through no deal he has another think coming,” Lewis said. “We will build a mass movement to save democracy, and everyone who wants to stop this travesty must get ready to mobilise, demonstrate and resist. MPs, too, will have to play their part. They’ll have to drag me out of the chamber.”

The Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who grabbed parliament’s ceremonial mace in protest at the cancellation of the first withdrawal agreement vote last year, told the Mirror the country should call a general strike.

“Now it looks more and more like the only way forward to stop our country falling into the hands of the undemocratic right,” he said.

“If the government tries to drive no deal through by stopping parliament from sitting, we cannot just rely on the courts and parliamentary process. We need a mass movement of resistance, with marches, civil disobedience and protests in every village, town and city of this country.”

A coalition of leftwing groups, including Momentum and Another Europe is Possible, have called a snap protest outside parliament on Wednesday night, while a petition against the prorogation of parliament has already reached the 100,000 threshold to be debated by MPs, less than three hours after Johnson’s announcement.

A legal challenge to the plans is also expected next week. The SNP MP Joanna Cherry confirmed she had spoken to her legal team about speeding up planned action in the Scottish courts, which was due to be heard on 6 September.

Labour’s Ian Murray, another of the cross-party group of more than 70 MPs and peers behind the action, said they would consider seeking an interim interdict – similar to an injunction in England and Wales – in the court of session to block prorogation.

Led by Jolyon Maugham QC’s Good Law Project, the group had been seeking a ruling from the court of session to prevent the prime minister going to the Queen with a request for prorogation until all appeals were exhausted.

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