Thousands in Falkirk district back bid to stop suspension of parliament

It follows approval from the Queen for Boris Johnson’s plan to suspend Parliament for more than a month, from the second week of September until October 14.

The petition on Parliament’s website amassed the 100,000 signatures required to be considered for debate by MPs less than three hours after the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his plan to prorogue Parliament in order to push through his new domestic agenda.

In Falkirk’s Westminster constituencies, 4,056 people had put their name to the petition by 11am on Thursday. In total, it had amassed more than 1.3 million signatures by that time.

Of Falkirk’s two constituencies, Linlithgow and East Falkirk had the most signatures, 2,155, followed by Falkirk with 1,901.

Any petition that secures 10,000 signatures is guaranteed a government response and 100,000 names sees the petitions committee consider it for debate by MPs.

The petition, which was created by Mark Johnston on Parliament’s website, states that Parliament should not be prorogued unless there is another extension of the Brexit deadline – or the idea of leaving the European Union is scrapped altogether.

It 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.”

The Queen approved the plan on Wednesday afternoon, which will see Parliament prorogued no earlier than September 9 and no later than September 12, until October 14.

Mr Johnson has denied the move is to pave the way for an early general election.

But he said it would allow him to bring forward legislation for a new Withdrawal Agreement if a deal can be done with Brussels around the time of the European Council summit on October 17.