"Things Are Heading For Disaster": Dame Margaret Beckett Blasts Boris Johnson Over Proroguing Parliament

29 August 2019, 20:57

Dame Margaret Beckett has called Boris Johnson's prorogation of parliament a "constitution outrage" after the Prime Minister announcement the move yesterday.

Mrs Beckett told LBC that she was "astonished" by the news that Boris Johnson wants to prorogue parliament for five weeks, the longest period since the end of the Second World War.

She said: "He was elected by a small number of people in the Conservative Party, and the notion that he's entitled to do anything he likes and ride roughshod over all the normal constitutional observations in order to get his own way because he's decided that's the right thing to do.

"I think this is just completely, unbelievably shocking, and totally undemocratic. I cannot believe that people who claim to be patriots are speaking in defence of this like it's an ordinary, normal thing to do.

"I tell you what, if any Labour government was doing it they'd be screaming blue murder and demanding to send in the army!"

Mrs Beckett's comments follow widespread protests and the resignation of Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson and Lord Young as a government whip in the House of Lords.