Boris Johnson decision to suspend Parliament will make in Brexit

Boris Johnson told his Cabinet yesterday the EU would think ‘these guys really are serious’ following his dramatic decision to prorogue Parliament for a month leaving Remainer rebels little time to prevent No Deal.

On a conference call with senior ministers the PM said Brussels was more likely to offer Britain a deal if it thought that parliament could no longer ‘frustrate’ Brexit.

While sticking to his public insistence that the suspension was about new domestic legislation to be brought forward in an October 14 Queen’s Speech, Mr Johnson said events in parliament had a ‘direct impact’ on Brexit negotiations.

He insisted that his decision was ’emphatically not’ about bypassing MPs, but acknowledged it would make a ‘huge difference’ in negotiations with Brussels once the threat of MPs stopping Brexit was removed.

And following his recent meetings with European leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron of France and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Johnson said he believed they were preparing to move.

He said ‘we have got to stick our foot in that door’.

He added that the fact Britain could leave without a deal was making them think ‘these guys really are serious’.

ttorney General Geoffrey Cox said the move was entirely within the government legal and constitutional rights.

The premier’s shock move to suspend Parliament received the formality of Royal Ascent yesterday afternoon as the Prime Minister seeks to limit Opposition MPs’ chances of preventing Brexit on October 31.

But in the aftermath of the carefully choreographed move which saw Jacob Rees-Mogg fly to Balmoral to present the plan to the Queen in person after Her Majesty had a telephone meeting with Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister was accused of being a ‘tin pot dictator’ and committing ‘a constitutional outrage’.

A petition against prorogation hit a million signatures by midnight, crowds gathered in Parliament Square waving EU flags and shouting ‘stop the coup’, and a legal challenge is already underway.

Former Chancellor Philip Hammond said Parliament would now seek to move anti-no-deal legislation against the Prime Minister next week, although he added he was ‘not interested in bringing down the government’.

The government will prorogue this unusually long, two-year session of Parliament by September 12, which will be followed by a five week break and a Queen Speech on October 14.

The PM insisted the new session was required to bring forward new legislation on the NHS, policing and education and said there would still be ‘plenty of time’ to debate Brexit.

But the timetable leaves Remainers only a maximum of five days to enact the plan they agreed upon yesterday, to seize control of the government order paper and pass legislation to prevent No Deal.

Given the difficulty of achieving that in the time allotted, a vote of no confidence becomes a more likely option but government sources were bullish about their chances of surviving such a vote.

Despite the prorogation only lengthening the planned September break by a few days opponents issued shrieks of outrage.

Source – https://www.dailymail.co.uk