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.
And you must bear in mind that this is the greatest period of anger for them, or of confected anger, because after 31 October we will have left, and this is the last time that they have available to try and thwart the 17.4 million people who voted to Leave.’
Watch here:
Leader of the Commons @Jacob_Rees_Mogg claims the "candyfloss of outrage" against suspending Parliament is from people who never wanted to leave the EU #r4today pic.twitter.com/TKVy2oJZuk
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) August 29, 2019
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