Date set for parliamentary debate surrounding anti-prorogation petition

The petition against the prorogation of parliament. Photograph: Parliament. - Credit: Archant

An online petition calling for the government not to suspend parliament will be debated next week.

The petition on the official parliament website has more than 1.7 million signatures and will go before the petitions committee.

A separate, pro-prorogation petition, will also be debated by the committee on Monday.

The second appeal, which asks that “the prime mnister advise Her Majesty the Queen to prorogue parliament” to “prevent any attempts by parliamentarians to thwart Brexit”, has significantly less but reaches the threshold of 100,000 signatures.

The pro-prorogation appeal was launched back in February, and on March 18 the government responded and said: “The government has no plans to prorogue parliament and remains committed to delivering an orderly exit from the EU in line with its pledge to deliver on the outcome of the referendum.”

The petition against suspending parliament gained 100,000 signatures in just a few hours. Signatures continued to climb despite the Queen approving an order last week to suspend parliament no earlier than September 9 and no later than September 12, until October 14.

Thousands joined protests across the UK within hours of the move being announced.

Critics, including commons speaker John Bercow, called the decision a “constitutional outrage”, designed to stop MPs from intervening as the UK heads towards a no-deal Brexit on October 31.

The protests were dismissed as “phoney” by Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg.