The Daily Telegraph - 29.08.2019

PM’s letter and

Balmoral order

‘This morning I spoke to

Her Majesty The Queen

to request an end to the

current parliamentary

session...’

Parliament prorogued

Today and tomorrow

Edinburgh’s Court of Session

will consider a motion put

forward last month by 75

pro-Remain politicians to

block Boris Johnson

suspending Parliament.

Tuesday Sept 3

MPs return to the House of

Commons after summer

recess.

Wednesday Sept 4

Sajid Javid, the Chancellor, left,

due to make Commons

statement on Government

spending in 2020-21.

Sept 9

Parliament likely to begin

process for prorogation.

Sept 10

Parliament expected to be

prorogued until Oct 14.

Sept 14

Liberal Democrat party

conference begins in

Bournemouth. Jo Swinson, the

party leader, likely to give

speech on Sept 17.

Road to Brexit

What will happen

between now and

October 31?

Downing Street

inner circle who

put the

prorogation plan

into action

Dominic

Cummings

Every move

made by

Downing Street

is planned by

Dominic

Cummings, the

former Vote

Leave campaign

chief who is

Boris Johnson’s

top adviser. His

no-nonsense

approach appalls

and delights in

equal measure.

Mr Cummings,

who worked as a

special adviser

under Michael

Gove at the

Department of

Education for

almost three

years, has a

win-at-all-costs

mentality and

prorogation is no

doubt the first of

many surprises

he has planned.

Sam Freedman, a

former civil

servant who

worked

alongside Mr

Cummings in the

education

department,

said: “It’s

extraordinary

the extent to

which

Cummings is

actually the

PM. No

adviser has

dominated

the

Downing

Street

agenda

like this

ever

before.”

Geoffrey

Cox

The Attorney

General may be a

Brexiteer, but his

professional

pride outweighs

any political

motivations – as

Theresa May

found out to her

cost. It was the

barrister who

sealed the fate of

her Brexit deal,

when he

admitted there is

no way for^

the UK to

unilaterally

leave the Irish

backstop

protocol.

The new

Downing Street

regime is clearly

learning from

that mistake,

and sought

advice from

Mr Cox on

the legality

of

prorogation

before the

plan was

made public.

Michael

Gove

Despite the bad

blood between

him and Mr

Johnson, the

former

environment

secretary is a

key member

of Downing

Street’s top

team. The

Chancellor

of the Duchy

of Lancaster

was one of the

few people to

know about the

prorogation

plan, which was

cooked up by Mr

Cummings.

The trio of Gove,

Cummings and

Johnson were a

formidable team

in the 2016 EU

referendum,

and it is

unlikely that

any of Mr

Cummings’ plots

will go ahead

without Mr

Gove’s

approval.

By Gordon Rayner Political Editor

and Owen Bennett WhitEhall Editor

IT WAS supposed to be the most secret

of government missions as Jacob Rees-

Mogg boarded a British Airways flight

to Aberdeen at 8.45am yesterday.

Together with Baroness Evans, the

Leader of the Lords, and Mark Spencer,

the Chief Whip, he was leading a Privy

Council delegation to Balmoral, with

instructions to ask the Queen to pro-

rogue Parliament.

Downing Street was so determined

to keep their errand under wraps that

Mr Rees-Mogg, the most recognisable

of the trio, travelled separately to mini-

mise the chances of fellow passengers

working out what was going on.

But their cover had been blown after

a leak – said to have come from within

Whitehall – forced No 10 to confirm

what was afoot just 15 minutes into the

Rees-Mogg has

cover blown on

secret trip to

see the Queen

flight, hours before the formal request

could be put to the Queen.

To the embarrassment of Downing

Street, Boris Johnson had to bring for-

ward a phone call to Her Majesty to ask

her to prorogue Parliament so that she

would know about it before the rest of

the nation heard it on the news.

Last night, Brexiteers were demand-

ing to know whether a Remain-friendly

civil servant within Downing Street or

the wider Government had leaked the

news to opposition MPs in an act of

hostility towards the Prime Minister.

Only six Cabinet ministers, together

with Mr Johnson, knew of the plans to

suspend Parliament for a month, start-

ing in the second week of September.

Together with Mr Johnson’s inner

circle of Downing Street advisers, Sajid

Javid, the Chancellor, Michael Gove,

the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancas-

ter, and Geoffrey Cox, the Attorney

General, had been discussing for weeks

the possibility of proroguing Parlia-

ment as a means of ensuring MPs could

not block a no-deal Brexit.

The plan was so hush-hush that

none of the ministers told their staff or

junior ministerial colleagues what they

were up to, keeping the meetings

strictly off-diary.

Mr Cox is understood to have been

asked for his legal opinion shortly after

Mr Johnson became Prime Minister

last month, and agreed that ending the

longest parliamentary session for

nearly 400 years, in order to bring for-

ward a Queen’s Speech in October, was

entirely in order.

Over the past month, proroguing

Parliament became one of several op-

tions under discussion in Mr Johnson’s

inner circle.

Dominic Cummings, the Prime Min-

ister’s chief strategist and former archi-

tect of the successful Vote Leave

campaign, was, as ever, the spider at

the centre of the web. Sir Edward Lis-

ter, Mr Johnson’s chief of staff, Lee

Cain, his communications secretary,

Nikki da Costa, his constitutional ex-

pert, and Munira Mirza, his policy ad-

viser, are understood to be among the

handful of other staff who were in on

the secret.

“The number of people who knew

about this was next to none,” said one

government source. “Most ministers

heard about it first via the news on

‘The number

of people

who knew

about this

was next to

none. Most

ministers

heard about

it first via

the news’

Leavers demand to know

whether a civil servant

leaked carefully laid plan

to prorogue Parliament

4 **^ Thursday 29 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph

RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws