After backlash, Boris Johnson promises to speed up Brexit talks with brussels

Faced with a growing backlash over his decision to suspend Parliament next month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday sought to calm the furious reaction by promising to accelerate efforts to reach a new Brexit agreement with Brussels.

His statement came after another day of Brexit turbulence, two resignations from within his own party, and claims from critics that the government was trampling the conventions of the country’s unwritten constitution, undermining its democracy.

Johnson’s move to suspend Parliament in September makes it significantly harder for lawmakers to pass legislation preventing Britain from leaving the European Union without an agreement — a step his critics were planning.

But in his latest swerve, Johnson promised that Britain’s Brexit negotiators would sit down with their European counterparts twice a week through September, with the possibility of additional technical meetings, to try to reach a deal that would avert the risk of a cliff-edge departure.

“I have said right from my first day in office that we are ready to work in an energetic and determined way to get a deal done,” Johnson said in comments released by his office. “While I have been encouraged with my discussions with EU leaders over recent weeks that there is a willingness to talk about alternatives to the anti-democratic backstop, it is now time for both sides to step up the tempo.”

The two sides remain some distance apart on critical issues but are willing to work hard to find a way through, Downing Street said. But Johnson’s latest intervention seemed to acknowledge the mounting concern about his suspension of Parliament, a decision that provoked spontaneous protests in London and other cities on Wednesday and prompted almost 1.5 million people to sign an online protest petition.

The most prominent figure to resign Thursday was the Conservative Party leader in Scotland, Ruth Davidson. Though she carefully avoided criticizing Johnson in a resignation letter and at a news conference, she nonetheless acknowledged her differences with him over Brexit. Davidson opposes a “no-deal” Brexit, but said she trusted Johnson’s assurances that he does intend to reach an agreement with the EU by Oct 31 and appealed to lawmakers to support a new deal if one can be reached.

Lord Young of Cookham, a former Cabinet minister, resigned as a Conservative whip in the House of Lords on Thursday, saying in a letter that Johnson’s action “risks undermining the fundamental role of Parliament at a critical time in our history, and reinforces the view that the government may not have the confidence of the House for its Brexit policy.”

Numerous reports, including ones by the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund, have said a no-deal Brexit would be chaotic and would seriously damage Britain’s economy. Leaks from the government itself have warned of the possibility of jammed ports and shortages of some medicines and fuel.

A majority of lawmakers are on record as opposing such an outcome. But Johnson, who became prime minister last month, has promised to leave the European Union on the scheduled date, Oct 31, preferably with an agreement but without one if necessary.

In an overnight poll, far more Britons opposed than supported his suspension of Parliament, and angry comments calling it undemocratic peppered social media, many with the hashtag #StopTheCoup.

The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, and a former Conservative chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, each called it a “constitutional outrage”; Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, labeled it “a sort of smash and grab on our democracy.”

But Jacob Rees-Mogg, a hard-line Brexit supporter and the Conservative leader of the House of Commons, on Thursday defended the government’s decision, arguing that there would still be adequate time to debate Brexit. The real threat to Britain’s unwritten Constitution, he wrote in The Daily Telegraph, came from those who opposed Brexit and wanted to overturn the 2016 referendum decision to leave the bloc.

“The candyfloss of outrage that we’ve had over the past 24 hours — which is almost entirely confected — is from people who never wanted to leave the European Union,” Rees-Mogg said in an interview with BBC radio.

The suspension procedure was normal, Rees-Mogg argued, because Johnson wanted to start a new session of Parliament.

While that is technically correct, the timing of the decision, the length of the suspension and its practical effect make the move look like a politically motivated tactic to stifle opposition in Parliament — an institution that Brexit was supposed to strengthen.

Johnson’s stance also suggests that he is preparing for a general election campaign, in which he could present himself as the champion of the people against a Parliament intent on thwarting the outcome of the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Lawmakers are scheduled to return from summer vacation next week, but Johnson’s move means that Parliament will be suspended some time the following week. That heads off any attempt by his opponents to tack on a few more days, a tactic they were considering.

His new timetable has Parliament resuming work on Oct 14, after the political parties hold their annual conferences — and several days later than previously expected. In addition, he has scheduled on that date an address to Parliament by the queen laying out his government’s agenda, which lawmakers must then debate, taking up several critical days.

Johnson had the option of continuing the current session of Parliament into October, but instead he is starting a new one, meaning that any pending legislation intended to bind his hands will not carry over. If lawmakers who want to prevent a no-deal Brexit cannot draft, introduce and pass legislation in the next two weeks, they will have to start again from scratch in mid-October.

In effect, Johnson has cut short the already dwindling time for parliamentary action, and packed it with new obstacles for opponents of a no-deal Brexit.

Even so, they will try to legislate to prevent a no-deal Brexit when they resume work next week.

Another strand of opposition will come through the courts. One challenge is underway in the Scottish courts, and in London, the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller has made an application for judicial review of Johnson’s decision.

Legal experts are skeptical about her chances, and Jonathan Sumption, a former justice of the country’s Supreme Court, told the BBC’s Newsnight program that Miller’s case was a “very, very long shot.”

Miller has, however, previously upset such predictions. In 2017, she won a case preventing the previous prime minister, Theresa May, from bypassing Parliament on the decision to formally trigger Britain’s departure from the EU and start a two-year countdown.

Johnson’s move involves some considerable risks, as the backlash has illustrated. Yet it has also underscored the ruthless focus of the prime minister and his team to succeed where May failed, after the Brexit deal she negotiated with Brussels was rejected three times by Parliament.

His tactics also seem designed to reunite the political right and Brexit supporters behind the Conservatives, before a looming general election that most analysts expected soon. Under May, many of those voters had drifted away from the Conservatives, gravitating to smaller, pro-Brexit parties.

c.2019 The New York Times Company