Yes, ex-Prime Minister John Major claims himself a Conservative, but he’s acting more and more Left. Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister wannabe and front-runner to replace the resigned Theresa May, has said that if needs be, he’ll prorogue Parliament to block an anti-no-deal Brexit vote, if a no-deal departure is necessary.
Prorogue: a temporary suspension of Parliament following petition of the Queen by her first minister—the Prime Minister—for permission to suspend Parliament and her granting that permission. This use is unusual; prorogation is normally used for normal terminations of Parliamentary sessions; the term also describes the interval between that termination and the normal opening of the next session.
The former British Prime Minister John Major on Wednesday warned he would personally take legal action to stop any leader using a suspension of parliament to deliver a “no-deal” Brexit.
And yet, he threatens:
In order to close down parliament the prime minister would have to go to her Majesty the Queen and ask for her permission to prorogue. If her first minister asks for that permission, it is almost inconceivable that the queen will do anything other than grant it.
She is then in the midst of a constitutional controversy that no serious politician should put the queen in the middle of[.]
Thus, the hypocrisy: Major says he personally will precipitate that constitutional crisis with his own lawsuit to stop the process.
I for one would be prepared to go and seek judicial review.
Never mind that his case can only lose: as part of the Queen’s (any British monarch’s) Royal Prerogative, the power and the authority to prorogue belongs only to the monarch. No British court can overrule her.
Hmm….
Boris Johnson has seemed to me, from my afar, to be a competent politician (despite his little ways). And no competent politician would present the signer with a document such as this without having already ensured the signature would come.
I have no idea of the Queen’s view of Brexit, and I doubt any beyond her closest confidants do, either. But she has consistently taken the long view to preserve Britain and the throne. Thus, I suspect she would grant the petition, though I could be wrong.
Johnson’s threat to prorogue, however, says much about the differences between him and PM May.
I have said in a different forum that Darroch’s resignation and May’s acceptance of it are illustrative of why Great Britain’s departure from the EU is in such a mess–current British management (I hesitate to use the term “leadership”) is simply too timid to get anything serious done.
Johnson’s offer (not threat?) just points up that timidity.
Eric Hines