THE UK PARLIAMENT will be prorogued from tonight, after the queen approved another suspension of the House of Commons this afternoon.

The British monarch approved the second prorogation of parliament in recent weeks at a meeting of the Privy Council, following a request from Prime Minister Boris Johnson to do so last week.

The business of the House of Commons will be suspended from midnight tonight until next Monday, when Johnson will set out a fresh legislative programme in a Queen’s Speech.

In a statement last week, Johnson said the Queen’s Speech would allow the Government to set out its plans for the NHS, schools, tackling crime, investing in infrastructure and building the British economy. “We will get Brexit done on 31 October and continue delivering on these vital issues,” he said.

Johnson previously attempted to prorogue parliament for five weeks last month, before the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on 24 September that he acted unlawfully in doing so.

The move comes as Brexit talks between Britain and the European Union teeter on the bring of collapse, amid claims from both sides of intransigence and sabotage before the Brexit deadline of 31 October.

Johnson is continuing to threaten to leave the European Union at any cost – with or without a withdrawal deal – at the end of the month.

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Today he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as he tried to salvage new divorce terms which he had proposed ahead of a pivotal EU leaders’ summit in Brussels on 17 and 18 October.

A Downing Street source claimed that Merkel demanded a rewrite of Britain’s approach to the Irish border problem that made a compromise “essentially impossible”.

A deal now looked “overwhelming unlikely” and talks were “close to breaking down”, the source added.

With reporting from - © AFP 2019