{"id":281645,"date":"2025-07-22T05:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T05:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281645\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T05:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T05:08:15","slug":"sleepy-summer-7-times-uk-politics-went-nuts-over-recess-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281645\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleepy summer? 7 times UK politics went nuts over recess \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the whittling down of hopefuls, Liz Truss (remember her?) and Rishi Sunak spent August parading up and down the country delivering the same speeches to party members. Highlights included protestors<\/a> interrupting proceedings and Truss claiming<\/a> the \u201cjury\u2019s out\u201d\u00a0on whether French President Emmanuel Macron was a British ally (yes, really).<\/p>\n

2021: Afghanistan exit chaos<\/p>\n

The U.K.\u2019s almost 20-year presence in Afghanistan drew to a sudden close as U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew American troops and the Taliban returned to power. Both the House of Commons and Lords<\/a> were recalled in mid-August to debate the situation, and then-PM Boris Johnson announced the U.K. would accept up to 5,000 refugees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then-Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was heavily criticized for being on holiday in Crete as Afghanistan chaotically shifted back to Taliban rule, only returning to the U.K. after Kabul had fallen. The Sunday Times reported<\/a> that Johnson allowed Raab to stay on holiday for an extra two days. Raab was demoted to justice secretary the following month. Thanks, boss!<\/p>\n

2019: Brexit prorogation nation <\/p>\n

Boris Johnson\u2019s first weeks as prime minister of a country still agonizing over Brexit were dramatic. Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg met Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral<\/a> in August to request she prorogue (effectively, shutter) parliament for five weeks \u2014 a bid to stop plotters opposed to Johnson\u2019s Brexit program.<\/p>\n

\"\"Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg met Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral in August to request she prorogue parliament. | Peter Summers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The move to shut down parliament was highly controversial. Then-Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn even wrote a protest letter<\/a> to the monarch, arguing the action was \u201cnot on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, the drama continued as the government\u2019s decision faced legal action in Scotland and London. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled the decision unlawful \u2014 right in the middle of Labour\u2019s annual conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the whittling down of hopefuls, Liz Truss (remember her?) and Rishi Sunak spent August parading up and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[6904,25646,5109,802,748,1193,23522,105864,17790,33,34,393,4884,2451,33944,714,1749,1144,105865,5111,9891,5112,712,11655,16,15,49,1764,1202],"class_list":{"0":"post-281645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-bashar-assad","11":"tag-boris-johnson","12":"tag-brexit","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-british-politics","15":"tag-david-cameron","16":"tag-dominic-raab","17":"tag-ed-miliband","18":"tag-elections","19":"tag-emmanuel-macron","20":"tag-england","21":"tag-great-britain","22":"tag-jacob-rees-mogg","23":"tag-jeremy-corbyn","24":"tag-joe-biden","25":"tag-liz-truss","26":"tag-northern-ireland","27":"tag-owen-smith","28":"tag-parliament","29":"tag-referendum","30":"tag-rishi-sunak","31":"tag-scotland","32":"tag-theresa-may","33":"tag-uk","34":"tag-united-kingdom","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-wales","37":"tag-westminster-bubble"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114895159992649002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}