Westminster is used to manufactured outrage, but this was something else entirely

Bercow’s comments were described by Jacob Rees-Mogg as the most unconstitutional thing that happened on Wednesday, and they are certain to be used against him by Brexit supporters who believed he stepped outside the neutrality

Rees-Mogg has defended the PM’s decision to prorogue parliament (AFP/Getty)

Working at Westminster, you get used to the fact that there are some people who are quick to reach for the hyperbole and routinely brand their opponents’ actions an “outrage” or an “affront to democracy”.

But the response to Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament for five weeks in the run-up to Brexit was an entirely different matter.

Not only was the anger expressed in the strongest possible terms, it stretched across wide swathes of the political spectrum and included figures who would in normal times be the last you’d expect to mount the metaphorical barricades.