British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday announced that a suspension of parliament would be extended until Oct. 14 — just two weeks before the UK is set to leave the EU — enraging anti-Brexit lawmakers.
Members of parliament (MPs) are to return to London later than in the past several years, giving pro-EU lawmakers less time than expected to thwart Johnson’s Brexit plans before Britain is due to leave the EU on Oct. 31.
“We’re going to do it on Oct. 14,” Johnson told reporters.
He is scheduled to attend one last EU summit three days later.
“There will be ample time on both sides of that crucial Oct. 17 summit, ample time in parliament for MPs to debate,” the prime minister said.
The pound slumped almost 1 percent against the US dollar and the euro on the news, sliding 0.94 percent to US$1.2179, while the euro bought ￡0.9109.
A source in Johnson’s Downing Street office insisted that only about four sitting days in the lower House of Commons would be lost as a result.
Parliament returns from its summer break on Tuesday next week. By convention it is suspended for the annual conferences of the three main parties.
The first, that of the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats, starts on Sept. 14. The final one, that of Johnson’s governing Conservatives, ends on Oct. 2.
Johnson wants parliament to return 12 days later on Oct. 14.
The move enraged opposition lawmakers involved in trying to stop Brexit.
“This action is an utterly scandalous affront to our democracy. We cannot let this happen,” Labour Party deputy leader Tom Watson said.
Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said on Twitter: “The mother of all parliaments will not allow him to shut the people’s parliament out of the biggest decision facing our country. His declaration of war will be met with an iron fist.”
Green Party leader Caroline Lucas called it a “constitutional outrage.”
Sarah Wollaston said that Johnson was “behaving like a tin-pot dictator,” while fellow former Conservative lawmaker Anna Soubry said that British democracy was “under threat from a ruthless” prime minister.
Johnson has insisted that Britain must leave the EU on the Oct. 31 deadline — already twice-delayed — with or without a divorce deal from Brussels.
Six opposition parties on Tuesday pledged to seek legislative changes to prevent a no-deal Brexit.
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