https://www.theguardian.com/politic...ed-as-mps-tell-of-death-threats-politics-live
The Conservative party is expected to clarify later what impact the decision not to have a mini-recess next week will have on its party conference.
James Cleverly, the chairman, has already said it is not going to be cancelled. Political parties make a huge amount of money from their party conferences, because members and lobbyists have to pay to attend (you can see the Tory charges
here - pdf) and so it was always going to go ahead, regardless of what the supreme court decided on prorogation.
But the timetable may have to be rearranged. Boris Johnson was due to speak around lunchtime on Wednesday. Now he will be due in the Commons at that point, for PMQs, and so his speech is likely to be moved. For him to boycott the Commons and send, say, Dominic Raab in his place as a PMQs stand-in would be grossly disrespectful to parliament - although, on those grounds, the idea might appeal to Dominic Cummings. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, has told MPs he expects Boris Johnson to be in the house on Wednesday (see
2.45pm), but in the current circumstances, that could easily change.
What is also not clear is whether or not the opposition, aka the “rebel alliance”, will try to seize control of the Commons timetable next week to pass more anti-no-deal
Brexit legislation.
Yesterday Labour whips offered the government a non-aggression pact, saying that as long as the Commons sat on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, they would be happy to debate non-contentious business (meaning there would be not need for a three-line whip, and most MPs would be able to go to Manchester).
The conference is said to be worth £30m to the Manchester economy, and Labour did not want to take the blame for the city losing out. The government whips did not take up the offer, pushed for a recess instead, and lost the vote.
The business now tabled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (see
2.13pm) is non-contentious and in normal circumstances there would be no need for a three-line whip. But does the non-aggression offer still hold? Probably not. That offer was made before Boris Johnson spent three hours in the Commons disrespecting the memory of Jo Cox and using language seen as “inciting hatred towards MPs”. (See
10.50am.) As my colleague
Rowena Mason reports, opposition parties are meeting now to discuss what they will do next week. There is no reason to think they won’t want to do all they can disrupt next week for the government.
If the opposition does try to use next week to pass
emergency legislation to firm up the Benn Act, then the government will want its MPs in London on a three-line whip. If that is the case, the Tory conference can still go ahead, but a lot of fringe events might look a bit empty.
