UK MPs return, hit Johnson over Parliament move

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September 26, 2019

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UK MPs return, hit Johnson over Parliament move

Source: Agencies | 00:05 UTC+8 September 26, 2019 |

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British lawmakers returned to the House of Commons yesterday, venting their pent-up anger over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s failed attempt to suspend Parliament and warning that democracy itself is under threat from the government.

Senior officials in Johnson’s government sparred with lawmakers of all parties on their first day back after Britain’s Supreme Court declared that the prime minister’s move to suspend the body for five weeks was illegal because it thwarted debate over Brexit.

Britain is talking to EU member states to work out how companies providing professional services can continue to do so if it leaves the bloc without a deal, Michael Gove, the minister coordinating “no-deal” negotiations, said yesterday.

Johnson has vowed to take Britain out of the European Union on October 31, prompting the government to step up its plans for a disorderly exit.

Uncertain future

“We are also talking to EU member states, in order to understand how people who provide professional services can continue to do so, member state by member state,” Gove told Parliament yesterday.

Those people who are registered in Britain and working in professional services across the EU, such as lawyers, are facing an uncertain future if Britain leaves without a deal because their credentials may no longer be recognized.

In Parliament, Gove also said the government’s top economic priority was to maintain the free flow of goods into and from the EU.

But apparent plans by the UK to diverge from EU norms after Brexit will crimp its future relationship with the European bloc, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt warned yesterday.

“We are not stupid. We are not going to kill our companies by saying ‘OK, you can enter with your goods into our market free of tariffs but you don’t have to comply with our standards’,” Verhofstadt told a Parliamentary committee.

Parliament has passed a law requiring him to seek a Brexit extension if there is no deal but Johnson has said he won’t do that under any circumstances.

Johnson has begun to position himself as the champion of the people facing a recalcitrant establishment bent on frustrating the 2016 Brexit vote.

Attorney general Geoffrey Cox called Parliament a disgrace and tried to bait it into voting for a no-confidence motion on Johnson’s government and triggering an early election. He said Parliament would be “too cowardly” to do that.

“This Parliament should have the courage to face the electorate but it won’t, because so many of them are really all about preventing us leaving the European Union,” Cox told lawmakers. “But the time is coming. The time is coming, Mr Speaker, when even these turkeys won’t be able to prevent Christmas.”

Opposition Labour Party lawmaker Barry Sheerman accused Cox of having “no shame at all.” Former Cabinet minister Amber Rudd urged Cox to “cease this language of pitting Parliament against the people.”

“This Parliament was elected in 2017. It reflects the divisions in this country, the divisions in our communities and the divisions in our families,” Rudd said.

After the court ruling on Tuesday, Johnson had brushed aside questions about whether he would resign. He said he “strongly” disagreed with the court decision and even suggested he might try to suspend Parliament for a second time.

After three years of Brexit crisis and Johnson’s tumultuous two-month premiership, it remains unclear when, if or on what terms the United Kingdom will leave the bloc it joined in 1973.

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UK MPs return, hit Johnson over Parliament move

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