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Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn Says 'Crisis' Can Only Be Settled by General Election

© Sputnik / Alex Mcnoton / Go to the mediabankJeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK opposition Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK opposition Labour Party - Sputnik International
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has renewed his call for the Labour Party to agree to an early General Election. It came after the UK Supreme Court ruled Mr Johnson has acted unlawfully when he suspended Parliament.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has said the "crisis" affecting Britain can only be settled with a general election.

Earlier the leader of the Conservative Party, Boris Johnson, said: "The obvious thing to do is call an election. Jeremy Corbyn is talking out the back of his neck."

Mr Johnson is flying back from New York, after the Speaker of Parliament, John Bercow, urged MPs to reconvene at 11.30am on Wednesday, 25 September.

​The unanimous Supreme Court ruling was that Mr Johnson had acted wrongly when he asked the Queen to suspend, or prorogue, Parliament and his order was "void and of no effect.”

​Mr Corbyn, whose speech to the party conference in Brighton was brought forward from Wednesday because of Parliament being recalled, said: “This crisis can only be settled with a general election. That election needs to take place as soon as this government's threat of a disastrous No Deal is taken off the table. That condition is what MPs passed into law before Boris Johnson illegally closed down Parliament."

​Earlier Mr Corbyn said Mr Johnson had shown "contempt" for democracy and said he should resign and “become the shortest-serving prime minister there's ever been."

​​Labour MP Alan Whitehead told a fringe meeting at the conference in Brighton: “The Supreme Court has ruled that Parliament was never prorogued, which means I will be returning to sit in Parliament at 11.30 tomorrow morning. What happens when we get to Parliament I have no idea.”

Mr Johnson took over as leader of the Conservative Party from Theresa May in July and said he intended to take Britain out of the European Union by 31 October “come what may.”

But he has been at loggerheads with MPs and had to withdraw the party whip from 21 rebel Tories who refused to go along with his plans to suspend Parliament.

In his speech, greeted by wild applause, Mr Corbyn said: "The battle over No Deal isn't a struggle between those who want to leave the EU and those who want to remain. It's about a small right-wing group who are trying to hijack the referendum result to rip up our rights and protections to shift even ore power and wealth to those at the top."

Mr Corbyn said the hidden agenda behind a No Deal Brexit was that it would create a "race to the bottom in standards and workers' rights to create an offshore tax haven for the super-rich."

He said Mr Johnson wanted to lock Britain in "with a one-sided free trade deal (with the United States) that would put our country at the mercy of Donald Trump."

Mr Corbyn said: "Within three months of coming to power a Labour government will secure a sensible deal based on the terms we have long advocated and discussed with the EU trade unions and businesses: a new customs union a close single market relationship, and guarantees of rights and protections. And within six months of being elected we will put that deal to a public vote alongside remain. And as a Labour prime minister I pledge to carry out whatever the people decide."

​The Prime Minister has denied claims by the opposition he wanted to take Britain out of the EU without a deal.

Mr Johnson, who had been visiting the United Nations in New York, said: "I strongly disagree with this decision of the Supreme Court. I have the upmost respect for our judiciary, I don't think this was the right decision. I think that the prorogation has been used for centuries without this kind of challenge."

He did not rule out suspending Parliament again.

But in his speech in Brighton, Mr Corbyn said: "In a shameless bid to turn reality on its head Boris Johnson's born-to-rule Tories are now claiming to be the voice of the people. A political party that exists to protect the establishment is pretending to be anti-establishment. Johnson and his wealthy friends are not only on the side of the establishment they are the establishment.​ They will never be on the side of the people when supporting the people might hit them and their super-rich sponsors where it hurts - in their wallets and their offshore bank accounts."

The Labour Party leader also criticised politicians whose "dangerous and wrong-headed international interventions have exacerbated community tensions at home."

He said: "When Boris Johnson compared Muslim women to letterboxes or bank robbers, it wasn't a flippant comment, it was calculated to play on people's fears. Displays of racism, Islamophobia or anti-semitism are not signs of strength, but of weakness."

Mr Corbyn also pledged a Labour government would build three new electric battery plants in Swindon, Stoke-on-Trent and South Wales and said they would be part of a new "Green Industrial Revolution."

Mr Bercow, who has already said he will step down and retire from Parliament at the election, said citizens were "entitled" to have Parliament perform its core constitutional duty of holding ministers to account.

​The Conservative Party's chairman, James Cleverly, has confirmed the party's conference in Birmingham will go ahead next week despite the recall of Parliament.

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