London: More than a million people have signed a petition against UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend the country’s Parliament in the second week of September, just weeks before the Brexit deadline on October 31. By early Thursday it had garnered over 1.2 million signatures and was increasing by around 1,000 per minute, ten times the amount required for the issue be debated in the House of Commons, the UK’s lower chamber of lawmaking, reports Efe news.
The petition says: “Parliament must not be prorogued or dissolved unless and until the Article 50 period has been sufficiently extended or the UK’s intention to withdraw from the EU has been cancelled.” It came as thousands of people marched outside Westminster on Wednesday evening, just hours after Johnson announced he would suspend Parliament from mid-September, a week after MPs reconvene on September 3 following the summer recess, until October 14, when there would be a Queen’s Speech. A Queen’s Speech is held when a new government wants to set out its legislative agenda, but the move was swiftly criticized by opposition politicians and rebel conservatives for its timing, coming just before the UK is slated to leave the European Union (EU) on October 31. (IANS)