UK Speaker plans to block Parliament suspension for Brexit
LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that Britons wanted politicians to get on with delivering Brexit and were frustrated that they had failed to ensure a departure from the European Union.
Asked if he would hold an election after Oct 31 to ensure Parliament could not prevent Brexit on that date, Mr Johnson said: "I think the British public have had a lot of elections and electoral events."
"I think what they want us to do is to deliver Brexit on Oct 31 and I never tire of telling you that is what we are going to do," Mr Johnson said in a question-and-answer session on Facebook.
In a related development, the House of Commons speaker plans to block Mr Johnson from bypassing Parliament to take Britain out of the European Union, the Telegraph newspaper reported yesterday.
Mr John Bercow, 56, told an audience in Scotland that lawmakers can prevent a no-deal Brexit scheduled for the end of October and that he would fight any attempt to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament "with every bone in my body".
"We cannot have a situation in which Parliament is shut down - we are a democratic society," the Telegraph quoted Mr Bercow as saying.
"And Parliament will be heard and nobody is going to get away, as far as I am concerned, with stopping that happening," the man who voted Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum added.
Lawmakers have been investigating what parliamentary procedures can be used to prevent a no-deal Brexit, and in July backed proposals to make it harder for Mr Johnson to do that. - REUTERS
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