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Boris Johnson flayed in massive protests over House prorogation
The prorogation, seen as a ploy by the Johnson government to reduce time available to MPs to legislate against its no-deal version of Brexit, sparked online and offline protests involving millions of people who see it as a threat to democracy.
Hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children, across several age groups took to the streets on Saturday across the UK to protest parliament’s prorogation by the Boris Johnson government ahead of a crucial week that will shape the nature of Brexit by October 31.
Courts in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England are due to hear petitions against the prorogation this week. The Labour-led opposition will also seek to use parliamentary devices to speedily legislate against leaving the European Union without an agreement when parliament reopens on September 3.
The prorogation, seen as a ploy by the Johnson government to reduce time available to MPs to legislate against its no-deal version of Brexit, sparked online and offline protests involving millions of people who see it as a threat to democracy. Over 30 demonstrations were reported from all major towns across the UK.
Outside Downing Street, Johnson was called a ‘dictator’ by senior Labour leader John McDonnell, who reiterated his view that the prorogation is ‘a very British coup’. He said,“We have defeated dictators in the past in our history and we will defeat this dictator.”
The labour leader further went ahead to add, ‘This is a fight to protect our democracy. We know what Johnson is up to, it’s not very subtle, is it? He wants to close down our democracy to force through a no-deal Brexit.’
“He also wants to try and convene a general election based upon this idea of his, he can frame it as people versus Parliament. Let’s make it absolutely clear... Boris Johnson, this is not about Parliament versus the people, this is about you versus the people.”
Momentum, a hard-left group backing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is among groups seeking to ‘shut down streets’. A protest was also held outside Balliol College in Oxford attended by Johnson, besides other demonstrations by EU and British citizens in several cities in Europe.
