Boris Johnson’s surprise Brexit ploy: Delay parliament

Normally, in times of national crisis, British leaders convene parliament. But as the country confronts its biggest crisis in many decades, Prime Minister Boris Johnson seems intent on doing the opposite.

On Wednesday, Johnson threw the Brexit debate into new turmoil by cutting short the time parliament has left to try to prevent a potentially chaotic no-deal departure from the European Union. Opposition politicians denounced the move as undemocratic and possibly unconstitutional.

Johnson’s startling manoeuvre set the stage for a heated showdown with parliament next week, when it returns from summer recess, and possibly again in October, as the Oct 31 deadline for Brexit bears down.

The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, called Johnson’s decision a “constitutional outrage.” Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, denounced it as “reckless,” while the party’s finance policy spokesman, John McDonnell, called it a “very British coup.”

“Whatever one’s views on Brexit, once you allow a Prime Minister to prevent the full and free operation of our democratic institutions you are on a very precarious path,” McDonnell wrote on Twitter.

Parliament was scheduled to meet during the first two weeks of September and then to be suspended for annual political party conferences. It was then scheduled to reconvene around Oct 9.

But in a letter sent Wednesday to all members of parliament, Johnson said he intended to ask Queen Elizabeth II to “prorogue,” or suspend, parliament for around a further week and to have it resume on Oct 14, with the “Queen’s speech,” in which the monarch traditionally lays out the government’s agenda.

The monarch’s approval is considered a formality, and hours after the announcement, the government said that the queen had approved the request.

In a video interview Wednesday morning, Johnson said he had made his decision in order to progress with “our plans to take this country forward” and to “get on with our domestic agenda.”

“To do that we need legislation; we’ve got to be bringing forward new and important bills, and that’s why we are going to have a queen’s speech, and we’re going to do it on Oct 14,” he said. “We’ve got to move ahead now with a new legislative program.”

While Johnson’s manoeuvre seemed like a bolt out of the blue, it was telegraphed weeks ago by his chief strategist, Dominic Cummings. It also seemed time to inflict maximum damage on the efforts of opponents of a no-deal Brexit, who had agreed just the day before to coordinate a legislative assault on a no-deal Brexit.

Their time for manoeuvre was already limited, and Wednesday’s move will further restrict it by eliminating the option of shortening the scheduled break in September for party conferences — something lawmakers were considering. On top of that, the period of a queen’s speech is likely to take up several critical days, as parliament debates the proposals.

The prime minister’s strike against the anti-Brexit forces also conforms to a strategy he developed during the campaign for the Conservative Party leadership earlier in the summer, when he promised to withdraw Britain from the European Union by Oct 31, “do or die.”

He has maintained that stance ever since, and some analysts see it as a tactic leading up to a general election that many consider inevitable.

Keeping open the possibility of a no-deal exit is the only source of leverage Johnson has as he tries to persuade the European Union to accept changes in the withdrawal deal that will make it acceptable to a parliament that has already voted it down three times.

© 2019 New York Times News Service