Esther McVey: Tory leadership hopeful threatens to suspend parliament to force no-deal Brexit

But Michael Gove says taking the UK out of the EU without a Commons vote would not be true to democratic traditions

Conservative leadership contender Esther McVey has said she would be ready to ask the Queen to suspend parliament to stop MPs blocking Brexit.

Ms McVey said that the move – known as “prorogation” – would not be her preferred option as prime minister if it looked likely that the Commons was planning to stop a no-deal withdrawal in October.

But asked on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show whether she would be ready to do so if necessary, she said: “I wouldn’t be looking to do that. I have said I would use every tool at my disposal, so that would include that.

“It wouldn’t be my priority and I wouldn’t be looking to do that. I would be using what was in my toolkit.”

But leadership rival Michael Gove insisted that proroguing parliament to stop MPs from sitting in the days and weeks before the Halloween deadline for Brexit would be “wrong”.

Mr Gove told Marr: “I don’t think that’s the right thing to do. We live in a parliamentary democracy. Parliament must vote in order to ensure we leave the EU.

“Proroguing parliament in order to try to get no-deal through, I think, would be wrong for many reasons.

“It would not be true to the best traditions of British democracy.”