UK citizens are vowing to "abolish the monarchy" after Queen Elizabeth approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to suspend parliament.
More than three years after the country voted in a referendum to leave the bloc, the UK is heading towards its gravest constitutional crisis in decades and a showdown with the European Union (EU) about Brexit, which is due to take place in just more than two months time.
In his boldest step since becoming Prime Minister last month, Johnson enraged opponents of a no-deal Brexit on Wednesday by using a parliamentary mechanism to order the suspension of parliament for almost a month.
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A statement from the official body of advisers to the Queen on Wednesday confirmed parliament would be suspended on a day between September 9 and 12, until October 14.
UK Twitter users say they will "abolish the monarchy" following the Queen's approval to suspend parliament.
"If she [the Queen] is unable to apply critical thought to her function then she is utterly pointless," one user wrote.
"I've never been an anti-monarchist nor a pro-monarchist, but I feel today has tipped me over the edge to the former," another said.
A petition opposing the decision to suspend parliament for a month gained more than a million signatures less than 24 hours after Johnson's announcement.
A petition earlier this year calling for Brexit to be stopped gained a record 6.1 million signatures.
But this did nothing to shift the government's view that it needs to implement the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum, in which Britons voted to leave the EU by a margin of 17.4 million to 16.1 million.
Newshub/Reuters
