Brexit: Timetable to prevent no deal is ‘incredibly tight', John McDonnell warns

'I think what they are trying to do is probably prevent us preventing a no-deal by shortening the parliamentary timetable and then blaming us for that,' shadow chancellor says

Attempts by opposition MPs and rebel Tories to prevent a no-deal Brexit face an "incredibly tight" timetable, Labour's shadow chancellor has said.

John McDonnell said the Government was trying to "prevent us preventing a no-deal by shortening the parliamentary timetable".

The prime minister's announcement that he intends to prorogue Parliament for four weeks has, according to Mr McDonnell, "re-excited MPs" who want to stop the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, Mr McDonnell said: "We knew this was coming. We have been contemplating this all through the summer and looking at actions we can take. It is incredibly tight though and it doesn't take much to get a bit of filibuster in the House of Lords to prevent this sort of thing.

"I think what they are trying to do is probably prevent us preventing a no-deal by shortening the parliamentary timetable and then blaming us for that. And then maybe saying 'we will now have a general election that will be people vs Parliament'. People will see through that."

Labour said it will support efforts to block a no-deal through legislative means after an agreement was struck at a meeting of opposition leaders.

Mr McDonnell said: "What we will try and do next week is is straight with people. We're opposed to no-deal, there is a majority opposed to no-deal last time we had a vote on this. We will try and get legislation through that will prevent that happening. But if there is then a general election we will be honest with people, explain what the no-deal consequences are and say that is why we tried to prevent it."

He added: "The whole parliamentary process now has been opened by Boris Johnson's intervention which is trying to prevent democracy and interestingly on all sides of the House now we're saying 'we're not going to have that and we will assert the democratic rights of individual MPs'. There is a cross-party group that are now drafting up a legislative proposal that will have a range of options in it, as far as I'm aware.

"Now, they'll then publish that proposal and it will be around making sure that we're not in a situation where a no-deal is forced upon us without parliamentary decision-making."

Mr McDonnell later attended a protest outside Westminster where thousands had gathered to protest against plans to suspend Parliament.

He told the protesters: "The message is simple, whatever side you're on in the debate around Brexit, the message is absolutely simple here, we're supposed to be a democracy, and that democracy is meant to be a parliamentary democracy. They have taken away the decision. We think the decision that Boris Johnson is frightened of is Parliament itself taking control of the agenda next week and they're not allowing us the opportunity.

"By closing Parliament down, it effectively closes democracy down in this country."