British parliament to be prorogued Monday night: Downing Street

LONDON - The British parliament will be prorogued at the close of business on Monday night until Oct 14, Downing Street confirmed.

The move came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson requested the Queen to allow such a suspension, from a date this week until Oct 14.

On Oct 14, a new parliamentary session will be opened with a Queen's Speech.

Meanwhile, the prime minister's official spokesman also said while the British government would obey the law, Johnson would not be requesting another extension of the latest Brexit deadline of Oct 31.

The upper and lower houses of parliament have passed a bill designed to block a no-deal Brexit and direct Johnson to request a delayed Brexit from the European Union, a job which the prime minister vowed not to take. The bill is waiting for royal assent before it becomes law.

The bill would compel Johnson to ask the European Union for a three-month Brexit extension if he has not struck a new agreement with the European Union by Oct 19.

Johnson is expected to present his bid for a snap election on Oct 15 to parliament for a second time after his proposal was voted down last week by MPs.

Opposition parties said they will not back the vote, meaning no election in mid October as Johnson had hoped.

"The Prime Minister is not going to seek an extension," the spokesman said. "If MPs want to resolve this there is an easy way -- vote for an election today and let the public decide."

However, the prime minister has signalled to cabinet ministers that his government would have to accept a further three-month delay to Brexit if it was forced on him by courts.

The official confirmation came as Johnson was meeting with the Irish prime minister, Leo Varadkar, in Dublin for the first time since he entered Downing Street in July.

The two discussed the issue of backstop, which, a sticking point in the Britain-European Union negotiations on Brexit, aimed at avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland after Britain's departure from the regional bloc.

In Dublin, Johnson said he believed a deal was still possible by the European Union summit next month, and a no-deal Brexit would be a failure that both the British and Irish governments would be responsible for.

But the Irish leader said there was no such thing as a clean break between Britain and the European Union.