The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, is reportedly trying to shut down the UK’s Parliament ahead of the Brexit deadline. He will accomplish this by setting a very late date for the Queen’s Speech.
The speech is customary done by the head of state to open a new session of Parliament and MPs take time off before it happens. However, Johnson is planning to push the speech for October 14, only two weeks before the Brexit deadline.
This essentially means that the UK Parliament will have a few days in September and then two weeks at the end of October to try to block Johnson’s plans to take the UK out of the European Union without a deal.
There was an immediate reaction by politicians opposing a hard Brexit. There will be a meeting of UK ministers today to discuss the move. Meanwhile, anyone opposing a no-deal Brexit will only have a few days before Parliament’s summer break begins to come up with a way to stop the Prime Minister.
As a result of this news, the British pound crashed and dropped significantly. Investors now see a very high probability of a hard Brexit on October 31.