The British Parliament is set to be suspended for five weeks on Monday as MPs are expected to defeat Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s attempts to hold a snap general election next month, two weeks before the country is scheduled to leave the European Union, AFP reported.
“Parliament will be prorogued at close of business today,” the prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters. He added it would happen regardless of the outcome of the vote in Parliament on snap general elections on October 15.
The prime minister ordered the shutdown in an apparent move to stop a cross-party group of MPs opposed to a possible no-deal Brexit. Opposition parties, including the Labour Party, want to ensure that an election does not allow Johnson to lead the United Kingdom out of the EU without a deal.
A bill mandating Johnson to seek a three-month extension to the Brexit deadline will become law on Monday. According to the bill, the extension will have to be sought unless Paraliament approves a Brexit deal or consents by October 31 to leave the European Union without one, Reuters reported. Johnson has said he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than request such an extension. The bill prompted him to ask for an election on next month.
Opposition leaders have vowed to keep blocking the snap election till Brexit is extended beyond October 31. “He has got to ask for an extension,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Sky News. “We will do everything we can to prevent us crashing out on October 31 and will support an election when it is clear we will avoid that crashing out.”
In the past week, Johnson lost majority in Parliament, expelled 21 rebel MPs from the Conservative party, including Winston Churchill’s grandson and a former finance minister, and saw his brother Jo Johnson quit the government.
Meanwhile, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said he would step down from his position at the next election or on October 31, whichever comes first, BBC reported.
Bercow said in Parliament that his 10-year “tenure” was close to its end and it had been the “greatest honour and privilege” to serve.
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