THE road outside MP Robert Buckland’s office in Old Town was blocked as protesters rallied to voice their anger at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s move to prorogue Parliament.

Police had to close Wood Street and later escorted the crowd, estimated by organisers to be in the region of 250 to 300 people, on a march through the town.

The protest on Saturday was one of many in towns and cities up and down the country under the #stopthecoup banner.

Mr Buckland, MP for south Swindon and justice secretary, did not appear. But Sarah Church, the prospective Labour parliamentary candidate for his seat, posted a letter through his door and later tweeted it was to ask him to “explain how he will seek to avoid a no deal Brexit and whether he believes the lack of scrutiny of the Govt is morally justifiable.”

The Prime Minister intends to suspend Parliament from September 9 to October 14 during what has been described by some as the biggest political crisis since the Second World War, with just weeks to go before the Brexit deadline of October 3.

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Leave and remain voters and opposition groups united to take part in the protest. Labour Party candidate Bazil Solomon said: “Different people were talking about the issues they were concerned about such as climate change which is pretty good. The closure of Parliament was the worst decision under the sun. We can’t let it happen, we can’t have it.

“We need to be able to go in and argue our cases. I think the message got through.”

Protester Zoe McCormick, 45, from west Swindon said: “I’m passionate about staying in Europe, I think it’s an affront to democracy. We’re all going to lose quite a lot just by having our rights taken away from us.

“There’s issues like the NHS and basic things like fresh food and water that we are uncertain we will have if we leave. Every time you look at your phone and you read the news it’s always getting worse. I just can’t believe how bad it really has got.”

One of the protest leaders, Steve Rouse, 61, of Wroughton was shocked the Queen had accepted Boris Johnson’s request to suspend Parliament: “I felt sick. I was on holiday and when I heard it I just couldn’t speak. The protest was very impressive because at first we only thought we would get around 25 people. But because so many people disagree with what Boris Johnson is doing it’s brought a broad coalition.”