Boris Johnson's government has suspended parliament in order to hold a Queen's Speech next Monday and set out its domestic agenda.

It means the longest parliamentary session in the UK's history has come to an end, with parliament being prorogued until next week.

The ceremony began in the Commons, which was cleared as officials moved to the House of Lords.

It allows the prime minister to set out his domestic agenda and reveal what legislation his government will try and pass in the new parliament.

Image: Boris Johnson's previous attempt at prorogation was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court

The government controversially moved to suspend parliament last month, from 10 September to 14 October.


Opponents said this was to stop them scrutinising Mr Johnson's Brexit strategy - and challenged the move in the courts.

The matter ended up in the Supreme Court, with the UK's highest court ruling that the prorogation was unlawful and therefore null and void.

MPs returned to the Commons on 25 September to resume parliamentary business.

The session began on 21 June 2017 and lasted for a total of 839 calendar days.

This makes it the longest continuous parliamentary session since the UK was established by the Acts of Union in 1800.

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The previous record was the session of 2010-12, which lasted for 707 calendar days.

The 10 longest parliamentary sessions in terms of calendar days have all happened in the last 70 years, according to analysis by the Press Association.

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In joint third place are two sessions that followed Labour election victories - from April 1966 to October 1967 and from May 1997 to November 1998 - which both lasted 554 days.

Parliament is usually suspended once a year, which is quickly followed by a state opening and Queen's Speech.

However, Theresa May's government announced in 2017 that the current session was going to be extended to two years.

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This was to allow the passage of key legislation to facilitate the UK's departure from the EU.

But more than two years on, the session has been prorogued and Britain remains in the bloc.