MPs try to pin John Bercow to his seat amid late-night mayhem in parliament: 'I held onto his leg I think it was and others held onto his arm'
Labour MPs attempted to interrupt the prorogation ceremony - before being bundled aside by officials
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A Labour MP has described how he tried to stop Boris Johnson shutting down parliament by pinning John Bercow in his Commons chair.
In unprecedented and chaotic scenes, Lloyd Russell-Moyle and colleagues attempted to interrupt the prorogation ceremony, which requires the Speaker leave the chamber.
“I held onto his leg I think it was and others held onto his arm,” said Mr Russell-Moyle, explaining the disorder in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
“We took a symbolic protest to say to Speaker Bercow ‘no we don’t want you to go’ and held him in place temporarily.”
The protest failed when Mr Russell-Moyle and others were bundled aside by Commons officials, allowing the five-week shutdown – in the midst of the Brexit crisis – to go ahead.
A second Labour, Clive Lewis, defended the extraordinary action, saying: “We held up signs which said ‘Silenced’ because we believe parliament is being silenced.”
The party’s treasury spokesman denied it was “student union politics”, adding: “It’s really important that what is happening now is symbolic of a really severe shift to the Right.”
Parliament was finally prorogued shortly before 2am, but only after Opposition MPs heckled Black Rod and shouted “shame on you!” at the Tory benches.
Several Labour MPs held up homemade banners saying “silenced” and Mr Bercow himself delayed the prorogation ceremony to make a final, pointed speech attacking the five-week shutdown.
The Speaker then become embroiled in bitter rows with Tory MPs, yelling: “I couldn’t give a flying flamingo” at one of them.
Labour and the SNP then boycotted the second part of the ceremony in the Lords, preferring to stay on the Commons benches to sing 'The Red Flag' and 'Flower of Scotland' respectively.
Tory MPs in turn refused to return to the Commons afterwards to hear Mr Bercow’s final words before the session was finally curtailed.
Earlier in the evening, MPs had again voted to block a snap general election on 15 October 15, in Mr Johnson’s sixth Commons defeat in just six days – guaranteeing no election before the schedule crash-out date of 31 October.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments