This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

More than 50 MPs from the main parties have pledged to occupy an alternative House of Commons if the prime minister suspends parliament in September, saying they are determined to continue to debate Brexit policy over the five-week period.

Cross-party politicians call for an alternative parliament to fight no-deal Brexit | Letter Read more

In a letter to the Guardian coordinated by Best for Britain, backbenchers from the Conservatives, Labour, the SNP, Liberal Democrats, Change UK and Plaid Cymru said they would convene an alternative parliament should they be barred from the chamber.

Signatories include the Labour MP David Lammy, the current and former Lib Dem leaders Jo Swinson and Sir Vince Cable, the Green party MP Caroline Lucas and Conservative MPs Antoinette Sandbach and Guto Bebb.

“We cannot allow the government to avoid scrutiny at this time of national crisis,” the letter reads, saying MPs will convene “an alternative parliament to continue holding the government to account and fight this most damaging Brexit”.

“Those who voted to leave in 2016 were promised a negotiated deal by the Vote Leave campaign,” the letter reads.

“The prime minister has now announced that he will prorogue parliament in a bid to get a no-deal Brexit through. Such an unconstitutional coup risks compromising people’s jobs, security and living standards, not to mention the Good Friday agreement. Now Boris Johnson is jeopardising all this for the sake of his own personal polling.”

“It is clear that this has been done to stop MPs debating Brexit at our country’s most constitutionally charged time in recent history.”

Play Video 1:33 Jeremy Corbyn: we will try to 'politically stop' prorogation – video

The campaign group’s chief executive, Naomi Smith, said voters would expect representation during such a volatile period. “The Commons is an assembly of people sent by their constituents as representatives,” she said.

“If Boris Johnson succeeds in this unconstitutional coup and locks the doors of the Palace of Westminster at this crucial time, that assembly should make its voice heard by coming together elsewhere.”

A number of other direct actions are planned for the coming week, ahead of MPs’ return to parliament on Tuesday and the prorogation, which is planned for the following week.

Leftwing grassroots group Momentum has urged members of the public to block roads and bridges in protest at the move, which has sparked a ferocious backlash from across the political spectrum.

The anti-Brexit campaign group Another Europe is Possible has organised 32 #StopTheCoup demonstrations to take place in England, Scotland and Wales on Saturday.

More than 1.4m people sign petition to stop proroguing of parliament Read more

The move to set up an alternative parliament follows a similar gathering in Church House last week by MPs who demanded the recall of parliament and said they would oppose prorogation.

The meeting, convened by the Labour MP Stephen Doughty and the independent MP Luciana Berger, resulted in a pledge to sit through prorogation signed by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell and the former Conservative MP Anna Soubry as well as Swinson and Lucas.

The Church House declaration said shutting down parliament would be “an undemocratic outrage at such a crucial moment for our country, and a historic constitutional crisis … Any attempt to prevent parliament [from] sitting, to force through a no-deal Brexit, will be met by strong and widespread democratic resistance.”

