The Washington Post - 30.08.2019

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

natures. Johnson’s adversaries
promised to appeal his move in
the courts. Brexit opponents
were strategizing about how to
use their dwindling time in Par-
liament to halt the relentless
move toward an uncontrolled
break from Europe.
Johnson sparked a torrent of
criticism with his decision to ask
Queen Elizabeth II to suspend
Parliament for five weeks, dra-
matically shortening the time
lawmakers have to try to block a
no-deal Brexit.
Johnson has said Britain will
leave the European Union by
Oct. 31 with or without a deal.
The majority of lawmakers in
the House of Commons are op-
posed to leaving the bloc with-
out a transition deal to smooth
the way.
Labour Party leader Jeremy
Corbyn said that when Parlia-
ment reconvenes after summer
break Tuesday, he will move
immediately to pass legislation
to keep the chamber open and to
prevent a no-deal Brexit. He
joined other opposition leaders
in issuing a joint statement
Thursday evening demanding a
vote on suspending Parliament.
“We will be back in Parlia-
ment on Tuesday to challenge
Boris Johnson on what I think is
a smash-and-grab raid against
our democracy,” he told Sky
News.
Opposition lawmakers will
have to move fast if they are to
have a chance at success. Once
Parliament is suspended — in
this case no later than Sept. 12 —
any legislation in the pipeline is
typically killed off, and lawmak-
ers would have to start again
from scratch when Parliament
resumes Oct. 14.
In Davidson’s c areful resigna-
tion letter, the charismatic lead-
er avoided linking her move
directly to Johnson’s decision to
suspend Parliament, instead fo-
cusing on family issues. But she
also mentioned the “conflict I
have felt over Brexit,” and the
British media quickly linked the
departure to Johnson’s strategy,
given the timing. Davidson has
also previously been lukewarm
on Johnson — she supported his
rivals in the leadership contest
— and in the 2016 E.U. referen-

BREXIT FROM A

dum she memorably clashed

with Johnson, claiming that his

pro-Brexit side had told a series

of lies.

Davidson resigned from her

post as leader of the Scottish

Conservative Party, which she

had held for eight years, but said

she would stay on as a member

of the Scottish Parliament. Her

departure from the leadership

role is a major blow for the

Conservative Party, whose for-

tunes she helped to turn around

in an area of Britain where the

Conservative Party was for dec-

ades a toxic brand.

Davidson’s resignation came

shortly after that of George

Young, a former cabinet minis-

ter who left his post as a govern-

ment whip in the House of

Lords.

Johnson’s move “risks under-

mining the fundamental role of

Parliament at a critical time in

our history,” Young wrote.

On Thursday, David Liding-

ton, the effective deputy prime

minister in the previous admin-

istration of Theresa May — who

remains a nominal ally of John-

son — said the suspension was

“not a good way to do democra-

cy” and “sets a very bad prec-

edent for future governments.”

He told the BBC that if the

opposition Labour Party had

done something similar, “some

of my Tory colleagues who are

cheering at the moment would

be turning purple with rage.”

Other opponents are hoping

to use the courts to stop Johnson

from suspending Parliament. A

cross-party group of more than

70 lawmakers took their legal

challenge Thursday to Scot-

land’s highest civil court. Gina

Miller, the business executive

who in 2017 won a high-profile

legal challenge over how the

British government could start

the Brexit process, has filed an

application at the High Court in

London seeking an urgent re-

view of Johnson’s decision.

Johnson’s government insists

that it is not doing anything

unusual and that it is normal for

a new prime minister to suspend

Parliament ahead of the queen’s

speech presenting the country’s

legislative agenda.

It generally does happen ev-

ery year, but the length of the

suspension — the longest since

1945 — and the timing have

drawn widespread criticism.

Johnson’s allies were quick to

dismiss the concerns Thursday.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of

the House of Commons, brushed

off what he called the “candy-

floss of outrage” over the tempo-

rary shuttering of the legisla-

ture, using the British term for

cotton candy. “I don’t think

there is any attempt to railroad,”

he told the BBC on Thursday,

insisting Johnson simply want-

ed to get on with his domestic

agenda.

But one top Johnson lieuten-

ant, Defense Secretary Ben Wal-

lace, was caught on camera ac-

knowledging that Johnson was

struggling to push through Brex-

it without a majority.

“Parliament has been very

good at saying what it doesn’t

want. It h as been awful at s aying

what it wants. That’s the reality.

So eventually any leader has to,

you know, try,” Wallace ex-

plained to French Defense Min-

ister Florence Parly, caught on

camera ahead of an unrelated

meeting in Helsinki.

A government spokesman

said later that Wallace “mis-

spoke.”

The British Parliament voted

down the Brexit deal three

times, mostly because of the

“backstop,” an insurance plan

that would guarantee an open

border between Ireland and

Northern Ireland to prevent a

return to violence there. Under

the plan, the United Kingdom

risks getting stuck inside the

European Customs Union, limit-

ing its ability to conduct inde-

pendent trade deals.

European leaders were mostly

quiet about the British drama,

wary of being sucked into a

domestic political dispute and

already skeptical about the

chances that Britain would man-

age to agree to a transition deal

before it departed. One senior

diplomat, speaking on the con-

dition of anonymity to discuss

sensitive assessments, said that

because a no-deal departure was

the default expectation for many

E.U. policymakers, the fight over

Parliament actually felt like a

distraction.

And in Germany, one promi-

nent ally of Chancellor Angela

Merkel indicated that Johnson’s

tactics may be hardening atti-

tudes against him.

“If the rationale was to scare

the #EU into renegotiation by

removing #parliament as the fi-

nal obstacle to #NoDeal #Brexit,

the #UK government has been

gravely misled,” t he chairman of

the German parliament’s for-

eign affairs committee, Norbert

Röttgen, wrote on Twitter.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Birnbaum reported from Brussels.

Quentin Ariès in Brussels contributed

to this report.

Opponents move to fight Johnson in Parliament, courts

JANE BARLOW/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pro-European Union activists take to the streets in Edinburgh on Wednesday to protest the move to suspend the British Parliament.

Johnson “risks undermining the fundamental

role of Parliament at a critical time.”

George Young, who resigned as a House of Lords government whip

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