The Tory government has replied to a 1.7million-strong petition against shutting down the House of Commons - 15 minutes before ministers went and shut it down anyway.
The email arrived in a backer's inbox at 1.03am this morning after MPs spent two hours debating whether Boris Johnson was right to prorogue Parliament for a month.
Then, at 1.18am, the Queen's representative Black Rod arrived in the Commons to announce it will be shut.
The decision to prorogue Parliament ahead of a Queen's Speech - for an unusually long time - means MPs are unable to formally scrutinise Boris Johnson's Brexit plans.
And it means they cannot table new laws despite just 51 days remaining to the October 31 Brexit deadline.
In the petition, which accompanied street protests chanting "stop the coup", signers declared: "Parliament must not be prorogued or dissolved unless and until the Article 50 period has been sufficiently extended or the UK's intention to withdraw from the EU has been cancelled."
But the government said last night: "Prorogation is a prerogative Act of the Crown, exercised on the advice of Ministers.
"We must respect the referendum result and the UK will be leaving the EU on 31 October whatever the circumstances.
"The UK will be leaving the EU on 31 October whatever the circumstances. We must respect the referendum result."
The hardline wording of the response raises questions over whether Boris Johnson's government will obey the law.
The Queen yesterday approved a law that forces the PM to seek a three-month delay to Brexit if there is no agreement by October 19.
But Tory ministers have said that, while obeying the law, the government will "test" the limits of how far it can be pushed.
