UK PM puts Brexit top on agenda

LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday put Britain’s departure from the EU at the top of the agenda, as Queen Elizabeth II read out his plans for government in a parliamentary ceremony following a sweeping election win. The monarch formally opened parliament with plenty of traditional pomp and pageantry before ermine and red-robed members of the Upper House of Lords, and MPs from the Lower House of Commons. But before the monarch’s set-piece speech, Scotland’s first minister called for a new vote on independence, signalling a looming constitutional battle between London and Edinburgh.