Boris Johnson is being widely accused of subverting the British version of democracy with his plan to suspend or prorogue parliament for four weeks – unprecedented in modern times.
His apparent aim is to make it much harder for MPs to take control of the process of when and whether the UK leaves the EU.
But in behaving more like a Trumpian president than a British prime minister, he is simply following the logic of the massive constitutional changes that the 2010 and 2015 parliaments perhaps recklessly and thoughtlessly pushed through. These were, of course, the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act and the referendum on whether to leave the EU.
Johnson himself is clear he is only following through on what parliament set in train – his consistent justification for his actions is he is determined to put into force the votes of more than 17 million people who voted for Brexit in 2016.
He sets himself up as the voice of a country that expects MPs to ‘do the right thing and honour the pledge they made to the people [to Brexit].’
As the leader of the Vote Leave campaign that triumphed in the referendum, he is in a sense arguing he has a personal and direct mandate for Brexit.
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