International Development Secretary Rory Stewart has promised to help create an “alternative parliament” in order to stop a no-deal Brexit if the next prime minister tries to prorogue the Commons in order to bypass MPs’ wishes.
Boris Johnson, the front runner in the race to become the next Tory leader, has suggested that he is still open to the idea of shutting down Parliament, known as proroguing, if MPs fail to back his future plans to leave the European Union.
Stewart – who ran in the leadership race but failed to make it to the final two in voting last month – insists that no deal “does not work” and claims there is not a majority to support the option.
The MP for Penrith and Border says he has the support of David Gauke, Ken Clarke and “most of the people that supported me for the leadership”.
The threat echoes those that Stewart made during his leadership campaign, when he vowed to “bring down” Johnson if he tried to shut out MPs from key decision-making and to “hold our own session of Parliament across the road in Methodist Central Hall”.
This week, the would-be rebel said: “That sounds quite Civil War-ist, but that is what happened in 2002 when Blair tried not to have a vote on the Iraq War. I got into a lot of trouble when I first proposed this, though it’s just a fact that Parliament is not about the building.”
He added that a former speaker, such as Betty Boothroyd, could be enlisted to oversee a parliament sitting in defiance of Johnson, or to use some other “constitutional manoeuvre which means whatever legislation Parliament tries to pass” does not bind his hands, reports The Guardian.
The minister says he will resign as international development secretary if Johnson beats leadership rival Jeremy Hunt to the top job, and that he would then restart his “Rory walks” tour campaign around the country, sharing stories on social media.
