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.
Nicola Sturgeon said Brexit and election results north of the border made a clear “constitutional and democratic case” for a fresh look about whether Scotland should end its more than 300-year-old union with England and Wales.
Top of Johnson’s to-do list is a bill to ratify the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union, which he negotiated in October but
could not get through a deadlocked parliament.
Now with a comfortable majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, he hopes to push through the deal in time to fulfill his election campaign pledge to “Get Brexit Done” on the next EU deadline.
“My government’s priority is to deliver the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union on 31st January,” the queen confirmed from a gilded throne.
She added: “Thereafter, my ministers will seek a future relationship with the EU based on a free trade agreement that benefits the whole of the United Kingdom.”
In a sign of the government’s vow to keep to the Brexit timetable, a spokesman said the Department for Exiting the European Union “will be wound up once the UK leaves the EU on 31 January”.
The Queen’s Speech normally takes place about once a year but there was one in October after Johnson became Conservative leader in July following an internal party vote.
As a result, Thursday’s speech was scaled down, with the 93-year-old monarch eschewing her horse-drawn carriage for a car and her
regalia for a matching coral green hat and coat. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
