According to The Observer, the legal guidance given in the email advises that closing parliament could be
possible, unless the courts agree to demands by anti-Brexit campaigners to block such a move.
It comes after MPs launched a cross-party campaign to block a no-deal departure from the EU on 31
October.
Reacting to the news, shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson’s attempts to suspend
parliament “must be stopped”. He wrote on Twitter: “To suspend parliament at this crucial time is
outrageous. MPs must take the earliest opportunity to take Johnson on and defeat him.”
Luciana Berger, independent MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said parliament “should be sitting every day
until 31 October” and that Mr Johnson should “recall now”. She added: “Yet his team are looking to close it
for 5 weeks to ram through a reckless, mandateless, No Deal Brexit – revealing a dangerous contempt for
our parliamentary democracy.”
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is preparing to tell EU leaders that he will withhold £30bn from the Brexit divorce
bill agreed by Theresa May unless they agree to changes to the deal, the Mail on Sunday reports. Lawyers
have calculated the government would only be liable to pay the EU about £9bn, instead of £39bn, if Britain
leaves the bloc without a trade deal, according to the newspaper.