Jacob Rees-Mogg declared war on Speaker John Bercow this morning, dismissing outrage over Boris Johnson shutting down Parliament as ‘phoney.’
The Prime Minister yesterday announced he was going to reboot Parliament in September, slashing the time MPs have to debate and block his Brexit plan.
Number 10 say they want to hold a Queen’s Speech to set out their raft of domestic policies.
But Johnson leads a minority government - and every sitting day increases the chances of his Brexit plan being defeated by opponents.
Commons Speaker John Bercow spoke out yesterday, saying the so-called ‘proroguation’ of Parliament was a “constitutional outrage.”
But Mr Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the House of Commons and a member of Johnson’s cabinet, said Speaker Bercow was wrong to make the comments.
"It is not constitutional for the Speaker to express his opinion without the direction of the house,” he said.
"He has had no such direction and therefore his comments were in a private capacity. They can't be as Mr Speaker."
Mr Rees-Mogg insisted the move was not intended to limit the time available for MPs to debate Brexit but will allow the Government to get on with other issues.
He said: "I think the outrage is phoney and it is created by people who don't want us to leave the European Union and are trying very hard to overturn the referendum result and don't want the benefits of leaving the European Union."
He added: "Parliament wasn't going to be sitting for most of this time anyway. This is completely constitutional and proper."
Mr Rees-Mogg did a round of media interviews this morning defending Mr Johnson’s plan, after the Government faced criticism for failing to send any ministers to appear on TV and Radio yesterday.
Labour , Tory rebels and other opposition parties have vowed to press on with attempts to block Johnson’s plan to leave the EU on Halloween “do or die”.
But Barry Gardiner, Labour’s Shadow International Trade Secretary, admitted it would now be “extremely difficult”.
“That's why the government is disingenuous to say this is not about trying to stop us doing that,” he said.
"We will be seeking measures on Monday to try and have what is known as a Standing Order section 24 debate.”
A Standing Order 24 debate would allow opposition MPs to take control of Parliament, deciding on what gets debated and voted on.
It would allow MPs who want to prevent a no-deal Brexit to vote on extending the Brexit deadline - or even start a ‘vote of no-confidence’ in Boris Johnson, which has the potential to collapse the Government.
Mr Gardiner said: “We will seek to try and put through the appropriate legislation in this constrained timetable that the Government has now put before us.
"Downing Street is lying when it claims this is about the conference recess. If he wanted to get on with his domestic agenda, he would in fact be having a shorter period of prorogation."
Thousands of people rallied for hours outside Parliament on Wednesday night, and there were smaller demonstrations in other towns and cities as remainers reacted to the prorogation announcement.
More than one million people have also signed a petition calling on Mr Johnson not to suspend Parliament.
And some Conservative MPs opposed to a no-deal Brexit joined the chorus of disapproval as lawyers prepared legal challenges to the move in English and Scottish courts.
