Section:GDN 1N PaGe:4 Edition Date:190830 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/8/2019 20:57 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Friday 30 Aug ust 2019
(^4) National
Politics
Nicky Morgan
‘Proroguing parliament is
clearly a mad suggestion’
6 June
‘I’m a member of the
cabinet, I fully support
the prime minister’
Yesterday
Michael Gove
‘It would not be true to
the best traditions of
British democracy’ 9 June
‘Parliamentarians will
have plenty of time to
debate Brexit’ Wednesday
Matt Hancock
‘Prorogation would
mean the end of the
Conservative party’^ 6 June
‘Morning, how are you?
Sorry. How are you?’
Yesterday
Changing their tune
Ministers who had scorned
suspending parliament
Simon Murphy
‘A
bsolutely
outrageous.” “Not
a serious policy of
a prime minister in
the 21st century.”
“A mad suggestion.”
The idea of suspending parliament
to force through Brexit provoked
unequivocal condemnation from
senior Conservatives just weeks
ago, with ministers falling over
themselves to express their horror.
Now, after Boris Johnson moved
to prorogue parliament for fi vespotted Morgan strolling past the
gates of Downing Street, it was a
diff erent story. Asked to clarify her
position on proroguing parliament
given her previous opposition, she
said: “I’m a member of the cabinet, I
fully support the prime minister.”
Pressed again on whether she still
harboured doubts about the plan ,
she repeated fi rmly: “I support the
prime minister.” When asked to
respond to critics’ suggestions that
proroguing parliament represented
an aff ront to democracy, she said
nothing and walked away.Matt Hancock
The health secretary was once a
vigorous opponent of the concept
of prorogation – so much so that
he wrote a letter during the Tory
leadership campaign pledging to
rule out the option and urging other
candidates to do the same.
“To suspend parliament explicitly
to pursue a course of action against
its wishes is not a serious policy of a
prime minister in the 21st century,”weeks , his ministers’ opposition
has evaporated. The Guardian hot-
footed it to Whitehall to get answers
on their apparent U-turns.Nicky Morgan
The secretary of state for digital,
culture, media and sport told the
BBC’s Question Time programme in
June that proroguing parliament was
“clearly a mad suggestion”.
“You cannot say you are going
to take back control ... and then go:
‘Oh, by the way, we are just going to
shut parliament down for a couple of
months, so we are just going to drift
out on a no deal’,” she said.
But yesterday, when the Guardianhe wrote. The letter, dated 6 June,
added: “A policy on Brexit to
prorogue parliament would mean
the end of the Conservative party as
a serious party of government.”
Giving a speech during the
campaign four days later, Hancock
referenced war veterans saying that
proroguing parliament would go
against “everything that those men
who waded on to those beaches
fought and died for”. He added:
“And I will not have it.”
Now, apparently, he will have
it. Caught by reporters outside
his house, he dodged questions.
“Morning, how are you?” he replied.
“Sorry. How are you?”Michael Gove
The chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster told the BBC’s The Andrew
Marr Show in June : “Proroguing
parliament, in order to try and get
no deal through, I think would be
wrong.” He added: “I think it would
be wrong for many reasons. I think
it would not be true to the best
traditions of British democracy”.▲ Boris Johnson: ‘ready to work in
an energetic and determined way’Johnson tries
to calm MPs
with vow to
step up tempo
of Brexit talks
Heather Stewart
Severin Carrell
Jennifer RankinA bullish Boris Johnson has sought
to reassure Tory MPs queasy about
his plan to suspend parliament by
announcing he wants to “step up the
tempo” of Brexit talks in Brussels.
After his chief negotiator, David
Frost, met EU offi cials in Brussels on
Wednesday, the prime minister said
yesterday that both sides had agreed
to meet twice a week.
“I have said right from my fi rst day
in offi ce that we are ready to work in an
energetic and determined way to get a
deal done. While I have been encour-
aged with my discussions with EU
leaders over recent weeks that there
is a willingness to talk about alterna-
tives to the anti-democratic backstop,
it is now time for both sides to step up
the tempo,” Johnson said.
Downing Street is gearing up to
resist eff orts by MPs, lawyers and cam-
paigners to frustrate his suspension
of parliament. The prime minister’s
team face a battle on several fronts.The Scottish court of session is due to
rule today on whether Johnson’s plan
to prorogue parliament is unconstitu-
tional , and MPs are drawing up plans
to legislate against a no-deal Brexit.
Downing Street believes it can
defeat the legal challenge – in the
supreme court if necessary – and will
use every parliamentary tactic avail-
able to frustrate the rebels.
“We’ve been very clear before that
we will deliver Brexit by any means
necessary and that remains the case,”
said one Downing Street source.
Aidan O’Neill QC, acting for a cross-
party group of 75 MPs and peers, told
the Scottish court of session thatJohnson had trampl ed on more than
400 years of constitutional law by ask-
ing the Queen to prorogue parliament
solely for political gain.
“We have a constitution ruled by
law,” O’Neill told Lord Doherty , urging
him to issue an interdict – a Scottish
court order equivalent to an injunc-
tion – forcing the UK government to
quash the prorogation order signed
by the Queen on Wednesday.
Whitehall sources insist the gov-
ernment was “pretty confi dent” of its
case, and would pursue it, ultimately
to the supreme court, “if for some rea-
son the judgment went the other way ”.
Cracks appeared in the govern-
ment’s careful public justifi cation for
the suspension of parliament yester-
day, however, when defence secretary
Ben Wallace was caught on mic at a
meeting in Helsinki.
Wallace, a longtime ally of Johnson,
said, “Parliament has been very good
at saying what it doesn’t want. It has
been awful at saying what it wants.
That’s the reality. So eventually any
leader has to, you know, try.”
He continued: “Our system is a
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