UK: Suspension of Parliament sparks widespread backlash.
GEO´ Newsdesk Team
City of London Newsroom
UK prime minister, Boris Johnson´s decision to "prorogue" [suspend] Parliament for five weeks, has already prompted widespread dissent from MPs, opponents of a no-deal Brexit, a legal challenge and a petition with over one and a quarter million signatures. [Click here for latest on Petition]
After meeting the Queen together with Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg to obtain Royal assent for the "suspension" Mr Johnson said a Queen's Speech would take place after the suspension, on 14 October, to outline his "very exciting agenda". Going on to say that he did not want to wait until after
Brexit "before getting on with our plans to take this country forward".
Proroguing: discontinue a session of (a parliament or other legislative assembly) without dissolving it.
Interestingly, it was "No Deal Brexit" supremo Michael Gove who was first to jump to defend the move saying that the suspension, which was approved by the Queen yesterday [Wednesday, 28th August] was "certainly not" a political move to obstruct opposition to the UK leaving the EU without a deal. The government said the five-week suspension in September and October will still allow time
to debate Brexit.
This in sharp change from his impassioned pitch during the televised debate for the recent leadership elections where he asserted an impassioned pledge that he would always support the democratic process.
Rees-Mogg said opponents of the PM were "phony" and just wanted to stay in the EU, adding that Parliament would normally head into a recess for the party conferences in September anyway and stating that there would still be time to debate Brexit in the Commons before the scheduled departure date of 31 October. He said this Parliamentary session had been one of the longest in almost 400
years, so it was right to suspend it and start a new session.
Political pundits are now firmly convinced that a snap general election is imminent in an attempt to increase the current fragile majority in the house of one, however early poll indicators do not bode well for the Conservative party with the Liberals tipping the scales. If that proves to be accurate then Johnson's tenure as PM could be one of the shortest in parliamentary history.
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