In June 2016 the people of Britain voted narrowly in favour of exiting the European Union. Since then Parliament has been deadlocked about how to carry out Brexit and Boris Johnson appears to have run out of patience.
Boris Johnson’s government is to ask the Queen to suspend Parliament only days after MPs return to work next week in a bid to stymie efforts to thwart a no-deal Brexit.
Downing Street will then arrange a Queen’s Speech on 14 October, only days before the Brexit deadline.
MPs would then have hardly any time to pass laws which would prevent Mr Johnson taking Britain out of the EU on 31 October.
Mr Johnson said: “We need to get on with our domestic agenda and that is why we are announcing a Queen’s Speech for 14 October.”
He denied MPs would not have time to debate alternatives.
Mr Johnson said: “That is completely untrue. If you look at what we’re doing, we’re bring forward a new legislative programme. There will be ample time on both sides of that crucial 17 October (European Union leaders’) summit, ample time in parliament for MPs to debate the EU, to debate Brexit and all the other issues, ample time.”
Downing Street confirmed on Wednesday that Mr Johnson had spoken to the Queen to request an end to the current parliamentary session in the second week of September.
The news comes only hours after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn met opposition leaders and they agreed a pact to thwart a no-deal Brexit.
Mr Johnson will inevitably be accused by Parliamentarians of being anti-democratic but he is thought to be gambling on the public’s appetite for Brexit to be delivered.
Tory MP and prominent Remainer Dominic Grieve said it was “an outrageous act”, and predicted: “This government will come down.”
The pound slumped against the dollar and the euro in early trading on Wednesday, 28 August, amid fears that Mr Johnson’s move would make a no-deal Brexit more likely.
The pound is now worth $1.2179, while one euro buys 91 pence.
Mr Corbyn has claimed Britain would be left at the mercy of the United States and its President, Donald Trump, in the wake of a no-deal Brexit.
The suggestion that Mr Johnson will suspend Parliament has met with a mixed reaction on social media, with Remainers claiming it is blocking democracy and supporters of Brexit seeing it as the only way of pushing through exit from the EU.
Many people have urged the Queen – who is the ceremonial head of state in the United Kingdom, but has never refused the request of an elected prime minister – to say no to Mr Johnson’s request.