Ministers found out that Boris Johnson planned to prorogue parliament after the prime minister’s decision was already public, Matt Hancock has revealed.
In an interview with HuffPost UK at the Big Tent Ideas Festival, the health secretary said Boris Johnson informed the Cabinet of the move during a conference call after the news emerged.
Hancock admitted that he “didn’t raise any concerns”, despite having campaigned strongly against shutting down parliament during his bid to become Tory leader.
″[Proroguing parliament] goes against everything that those men who waded on to those beaches fought and died for and I will not have it,” he said at the launch of his campaign in June, invoking the memory of World War Two heroes who fought during D Day.
In an apparent U-turn, Hancock said he had been against shutting down parliament all the way through to Brexit day on October 31 and there was a “substantive difference” between that and Johnson’s plan.
“During the leadership debate there was a discussion of an idea that some people brought forward that from the new prime minister taking over, up to and through the first of November, parliament will be prorogued in order to drive through what would effectively be a no-deal Brexit,” he said.
“And I didn’t support that idea. And I spoke about it in quite passionate terms. There’s some people who are saying that parliament will be suspended. Well, it doesn’t feel like it to me.
“I’ll be in parliament on Tuesday. Parliament will be sitting then and parliament will be sitting after the European Council to be able to debate whatever deal the prime minister is able to achieve.
“The idea that parliament is shutdown will feel very odd next week when we’re all in the House of Commons. So it’s just not true. It’s an exaggeration when you look at the substance.”
As it stands, parliament will be suspended from the September 9 until October 15, severely limiting the number of days the prime minister’s opponents have to stop a no-deal Brexit.
“When you say that there is a significant reduction [in the number of days MPs have to debate Brexit legislation], it’s just not true,” said Hancock.
“If you look at the facts, we’ve had over 500 hours of parliamentary debate on Brexit. It hasn’t got us anywhere.
“The proposal on the table that I opposed so strongly was that parliament wouldn’t have that chance [to debate the terms of the UK’s exit].”
But in June, Hancock published a letter, calling on his fellow Conservative Party leadership candidates to “rule out” proroguing parliament.
“I believe that, as committed parliamentarians, attempting to prorogue parliament to deliver a no-deal Brexit is neither serious nor credible,” he wrote.
“A policy on Brexit to prorogue parliament would mean the end of the Conservative Party as a serious party of government.”
He also said there was a “good chance” Johnson will strike a deal with the European Union, despite the bloc remaining adamant that the Withdrawal Agreement will not be re-opened, as he warned Tory MPs of a “hard left” Labour Party taking power if his party failed to deliver Brexit.
“There is this great threat that we in the Conservative party have to be aware of. It’s obvious in one sense but sometimes I wonder whether it’s so big we’re blind to see it. And the big threat is a hard left Jeremy Corbyn administration,” he said.
“We’ve got to hold the wall. We’ve got to stop the hard left taking over in this country, because that would be destructive to our way of life beyond imagination. You’ve got to look at the big picture.”