May Doesn't Rule Out Running Parliament Session Until Oct. 31

(Bloomberg) -- Some British lawmakers suspect Prime Minister Theresa May will keep the current session of Parliament running until October, so that she doesn’t have to re-negotiate the arrangement with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party propping up her government.

“The government seems to be planning yet another round of constitutional shenanigans,” opposition Labour Party MP Chris Bryant said in an interview Thursday after May refused to confirm when the current session would end. “They clearly hope to keep the DUP on board for longer by this ruse.”

By keeping the session running -- keeping it going to Oct. 31 would be a peacetime record, according to Bryant -- the government avoids having to give time to the opposition, he said. That’s because the opposition are granted 20 days of debate per session, and they’ve already been used up.

But crucially, it means they “avoid the risk that their own backbenchers might not like what they put in a new Queen’s speech,” Bryant said. The DUP, whose 10 MPs keep May’s minority government in power via a so-called confidence and supply agreement meant to run for the “length of the Parliament,” have refused to back May’s Brexit deal. If it’s included in the monarch’s speech opening a new session, there’s no guarantee they’d stay onside.

The DUP’s Westminster leader, Nigel Dodds, told May Thursday his party doesn’t think an extension of the session beyond two years would be acceptable.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Alex Morales

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