Hundreds of thousands of protestors threaten to bring Britain to a halt this week in fury at Boris Johnson suspending Parliament.
The People’s Vote campaign claims to have 97 demos ready to go while Labour ’s Momentum are joining them to target 24 towns and cities.
Today demonstrators hit the streets in cities including London, Manchester, Leeds, York, Glasgow and Belfast.
In London, Whitehall was brought to a standstill amid chants of “Boris Johnson, shame on you” and protesters went on to march on Buckingham Palace.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told crowds in the capital: “Boris Johnson, this is not about Parliament versus the people, this is about you versus the people.”
And in Glasgow, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “A PM elected by 93,000 members of the Tory Party is trying to hijack the needs, aims and aspirations of 65 million people.”
In Oxford crowds holding banners gathered outside Balliol College, where Mr Johnson was a student in the 1980s.
Over the course of the week Momentum says it will hit Aberdeen, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Dundee, Doncaster, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and London.
Leamington Spa, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Preston, Sheffield, Southampton, Swindon, Wolverhampton, and York are also being warned of disruption. There are threats to block bridges and close down highways.
Westminster sources claimed Mr Johnson has his eye on Thursday, December 5 as the date for a general election. The poll, three weeks before Christmas, would be Britain’s first December election since 1918.
Mr Johnson is thought to favour that date because – since at least 25 working days must elapse from calling an election to holding it – he could announce it on Brexit Day, October 31.
The PM’s majority is now down to one and he needs more Tory MPs if he is to get a post-Brexit domestic agenda through the Commons. A source said: “Boris Johnson’s government stands or falls on delivering Brexit on October 31, do or die. The country would be so relieved it’s all over there would be a bounce in the polls in his favour.”
Supporters of a December 5 election say it would neutralise Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party as an electoral threat.
One said: “In that respect it doesn’t matter if we leave with a deal or not.
“The fact we have left will be enough to see the Brexit Party melt away just as UKIP did after the EU referendum.”
Labour MP Jess Phillips, backing People’s Vote protests, added: “It is vital that in this political emergency we do not let anyone separate Parliament from the people. In towns and cities across Britain people will be protesting to defend our Parliament and our most cherished democratic rights against an executive which is now out of control.”
Momentum’s Laura Parker said: “Nobody voted for an Eton-educated millionaire to hijack our democracy in his own self interest.”
Union leader Manuel Cortes, of the TSSA, said: “If the Tories think they can simply close down our democracy they have another think coming.”
More than 1.6 million people have now signed petitions calling for Parliament not to be suspended for five weeks, an event known as prorogation.
Court action by Sir John Major, Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, activist Gina Miller and Labour’s Tom Watson will also try to overturn the decision.
Parliament returns on Tuesday, when MPs will redouble efforts to prevent a no-deal Brexit.
A rebel alliance of Tories will join Labour and other opposition MPs in an emergency vote to force the PM to demand another extension from the EU.
Mr Johnson is relying on Tory peers to talk out any Commons proposal to halt Brexit before it becomes law.
He faces the risk of Mr Corbyn tabling a no confidence vote in his government. But the Labour chief is still unsure whether he has the numbers to succeed.
