Boris Johnson news: Corbyn launches bid to stop PM shutting down parliament, amid widespread fury at plan

Chuka Ummuna has called on health secretary Matt Hancock to resign over the proroguing of parliament, something he said in June would undermine parliamentary democracy.

During the Conservative leadership election, Hancock said suspending parliament to force through Brexit would go against "everything that those men who waded onto those beaches fought and died for". He added: "I will not have it."

The health secretary also said suspending parliament "explicitly to pursue a course of action against its wishes is not a serious policy of a prime minister in the 21 century".

Ummuna, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, drew attention to that statement on Twitter this morning:

Matt Hancock is far from the only member of Boris Johnson's cabinet to have previously spoken out against proroguing parliament.

In a televised Tory leadership election debate in June, current chancellor Sajid Javid suggested it was the strategy of a "dictator", while his fellow contender Michael Gove said it would be "wrong for many reasons".

Amber Rudd, now work and pensions secretary, told Sky News the same month proroguing parliament was "the most extraordinary idea I've ever heard" and a "ridiculous suggestion".

Culture secretary Nicky Morgan told an audience on the BBC's Question Time suspending parliament was "clearly a mad suggestion", adding: "You cannot say you are going to take back control … and then go: ‘Oh, by the way, we are just going to shut parliament down for a couple of months, so we are just going to drift out on a no deal’".

Andrea Leadsom, now business secretary, told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme last month she would not support proroguing parliament and she did not "believe it would happen".

Transport minister George Freeman said just this month that proroguing parliament would be a "huge mistake". He added: "I don’t think it’s the prime minister’s instincts – he’s a parliamentarian, he’s a Churchillian, he is a real democrat, and I cannot for a moment think that’s what he’d want to do."

On Newsnight in June, trade secretary Liz Truss said suspending parliament was an "archaic manoeuvre" that Johnson had already ruled out.

Lord Young, the government's whip in the House of Lords, has resigned over Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue parliament.

Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, has announced her resignation.

She posted a resignation letter to the party's Scottish chairman explaining her decision on Twitter a few moments ago.

Davidson expresses her wish to focus on her family, following the birth of her son Finn with partner Jen Wilson in October last year. She says the looming prospect of both Scottish and general elections and the requirement to spend hundreds of hours away from home "fills me with dread".

The Remain-supporting MSP makes no mention of Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue parliament, although she says she has "not hidden the conflict I have felt over Brexit".

The BBC's assistant political editor has got hold of Lord Young's resignation letter, in which the government's whip in the House of Lords accuses Boris Johnson of "undermining the fundamental role of parliament".

Writing to Baroness Evans, leader of the House, he said he had initially been "reassured by the prime minister's statement during the leadership election that he was not attracted to the idea of using prorogation to facilitate a no-deal Brexit."

But he adds: "I am very unhappy at the timing and length of the prorogation, and its motivation. While not agreeing with the hyperbole of some critics, I have been unpersuaded by the reasons given for that decision, which I believes risks undermining the fundamental role of parliament at a critical time in our history, and reinforces the view that the government may not have the confidence of the House for its Brexit policy".

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has responded to Ruth Davidson's resignation, suggesting the Scottish Tory leader's decision was not motivated by family commitments alone:

Ruth Davidson has torn into MPs who previously voted against Theresa May's Brexit deal, saying they had "three golden opportunities" to avert a no-deal.

Speaking to the media after announcing her resignation, the Scottish Tories leader urged MPs to support any Brexit deal brought back before the Commons by Boris Johnson.

She said: "The people right now who are saying they would do anything to avoid no-deal had a goal gaping in front of them three times and they hit the ball over the bar.

"For all the elaborate plans of bringing down governments and installing Ken Clarke and Harriet Harman on jobshares as prime minister, the simplest way to avoid no deal is to vote for a deal.

If the prime minister brings a deal back to the House of Commons as I know he is trying to do, for God’s sake, get behind it and this time at the fourth time of asking vote for it."

Despite speculation that Davidson's resignation has been triggered by Johnson proroguing parliament, she avoided criticising the PM, who she she said she believed was trying to avoid a no-deal.

But she did say she had a "public message" for Johnson. "It’s the same message I conveyed to him yesterday when we had a conversation last night: ‘Prime minister, get us a deal in the European Union'."

The UK's political turmoil has made headlines around the world, with international headlines generally critical of Boris Johnson.

 Germany’s public broadcaster Deutsche Welle branded him a "dictator", while Belgium's La Libe and De Morgen both described his suspension of parliament as a "coup".

Here's Jon Stone's round-up of how European newspapers have reported on the news:

Boris Johnson has not escaped criticism from the media even in more repressive states. 

Iranian weekly Javan declared on the front page of today's issue: "British democracy suspended for Brexit."

Meanwhile, in Russia, the business daily Vedomosti said the UK's exit from Europe "seems more and more that it will end up in tragedy".

Work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd has declined to answer questions about the decision to prorogue parliament during a visit to Belfast.

In June she described the idea of suspending Commons to push through a no-deal Brexit as "absolutely outrageous", "extraordinary" and "ridiculous".

She remained tight-lipped on the matter when asked about it by the PA news agency on Thursday following a visit to a job centre in east Belfast.

"I'm going to continue to do my job as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions," she said in response to one of a number of questions about prorogation.

Here's a video of the exchange: