Hundreds Of Thousands Expected At Weekend Prorogation Protests

30 August 2019, 15:57

Organisers are hoping "hundreds of thousands" of people will take part in disruptive protests across Britain this weekend in response to the Prime Minister's plan to prorogue Parliament.

Anti-Brexit campaign group Another Europe Is Possible has organised 32 '#StopTheCoup' demonstrations to take place in England, Scotland and Wales throughout Saturday.

Meanwhile, left-wing group Momentum is calling on its members to "occupy bridges and blockade roads" in conjunction with the protests.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has urged MPs to join the demonstrations and oppose the shutdown of Parliament.

Mr Corbyn said "no-one voted for Boris Johnson's shutdown of democracy."

He said: "This is why the public outrage at his actions has been so deafening, and why I am encouraging MPs to join public protests opposing this shutdown and the Prime Minister's threat of a no-deal Brexit."

Labour MP Clive Lewis has also called for people to support the #StopTheCoup protests.

In a Twitter post, in which he shared a link to the protest's online crowdfunding page, Mr Lewis said: "Pls click & support and help us defend OUR democracy."

The calls for protests come as a petition against Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to suspend Parliament racked up more than 1.5 million signatures as of Friday morning.

Further mass demonstrations, organised by the People's Assembly Against Austerity, are planned to take place on Tuesday to coincide with MPs returning to Westminster.

It also follows multiple protests in London, Edinburgh and other cities on Wednesday, which took place within hours of Mr Johnson announcing his plans.

Protestors will seek to force the Government to change its course.

The main London demonstration is due to take place outside Downing Street from midday on Saturday.

Other protests will be held in cities including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Swansea, Leeds, Bristol and Aberdeen.

The Jo Cox Foundation, which was set up in the wake of the Labour MP's murder in 2016, warned that anger over Brexit "should not spill over into something more dangerous".

In a statement, the foundation said: "People have an absolute right to protest, whether in Parliament, on demonstrations or in the media.

"We believe strongly in freedom of speech. But we would urge everybody to avoid saying or doing anything that could incite or lead to violence."

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