There were howls of outrage yesterday when Boris Johnson announced that he was calling for a Queen’s Speech on 14 October, and suspending parliament for several weeks beforehand. MPs, Remainer commentators and even the Speaker of the House of Commons chimed in to label the move a ‘constitutional outrage’, and accused the government of politicising the Queen by requesting prorogation for political purposes.
In response, the government sent out their own constitutional expert this morning to do a broadcast round, and to defend its decision. The new Leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg was quickly deployed to the Radio 4 studio, and didn’t pull his punches, telling presenter John Humphrys that the outrage against Boris Johnson’s move was entirely confected:
‘The sort of candy floss of outrage that we’ve had over the last 24 hours, which to go back to your introduction I think is almost entirely confected, is from people who never wanted to leave the European Union.
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