LONDON — The British government was accused of bringing the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis Wednesday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked the queen to temporarily suspend Parliament.
Opponents see the move as an extraordinary attempt to make it harder for lawmakers who want to thwart the prime minister’s plans for Brexit, as the deadline for Britain to leave the European Union looms on Oct. 31. The news sent the pound plunging on the previous day.
The prime minister confirmed in a letter that he had asked the queen to close Parliament from early September until mid-October. He said the current parliamentary session had gone on too long, and claimed the move was the best way to pursue his “bold and ambitious domestic legislative agenda.”
NBC News reached out to Buckingham Palace, which declined to comment.
Opposition Labour Party lawmaker Ben Bradshaw tweeted that the move was “a coup, plain and simple, against our parliamentary democracy.” He warned it would “drag the monarch into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.”
Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish Parliament, said that “today will go down in history as a dark one indeed for U.K. democracy.”
Next week was already set for a showdown between the prime minister and the House of Commons, which is currently on recess. Suspending Parliament would reduce the amount of working days before the Oct. 31 deadline.
The major dispute has arisen because Johnson says, if he cannot negotiate a deal with the E.U. by this date, he would be prepared to leave Europe without a deal at all.
Many lawmakers from his own Conservative Party and all opposition parties want to stop this “no-deal Brexit” scenario at all costs. Many experts, business leaders and even the government’s own leaked assessment warn this “no-deal Brexit” scenario could trigger economic pain and even a shortage of food and medicine.
The Institute for Government think tank says that suspending Parliament in this way, officially known as “proroguing Parliament” would be “undemocratic” and “a deeply troubling precedent to set.”
In a general briefing paper on the subject, it added, “Asking the queen to give effect to this strategy would draw her into a massive political debate — something which Number 10 and the Palace are normally at great pains to avoid.”
Opposition Labour Party lawmaker David Lammy called for people to “take to the streets in peaceful protest and civil disobedience.” He called Johnson “poundshop dictator” — using the British term for a dollar store — and accused him of threatening “to end Britain’s long history of parliamentary democracy.”
For months, Johnson has refused to rule out the move, drawing condemnation from across the political spectrum. John Major, the former British prime minister of Johnson’s own Conservative Party, likened the move to Charles I, the king who prorogued Parliament in the 17th century in a move that led to his beheading in 1649.
“It didn’t end well for him” and “shouldn’t end well” for Johnson either, Major told the BBC in July.
Nick Bailey contributed.
