British lawmakers on Thursday backed proposals to make it harder for the next prime minister to force through a no-deal Brexit by suspending parliament, showing again their determination to stop a divorce from the  European Union (EU) without an agreement. 

Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May next week, has said Britain must leave the Eu on October 31 with or without a deal. 

He has refused to rule out suspending, or proroguing, parliament to prevent lawmakers from passing legislation to block his exit plan if he tries to exit without a deal. 

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Lawmakers backed a proposal by 315 to 274 that would require parliament to be sitting to consider Northern Irish affairs for several days in September and October even if it was suspended. 

They also backed a requirement for ministers to make fortnightly reports on progress towards re-establishing Northern Ireland's collapsed executive, to give lawmakers an opportunity to debate and approve those reports and if, parliament has been suspended, to recall it in order to do so. 

The measures do not amount to an outright block on suspending parliament but could make it much more difficult to bypass parliament. 

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The three-year Brexit crisis is deepening as Johnson's plan to leave the EU "do or die" on October 31 sets Britain on a collision course with the bloc's 27 other leaders and many lawmakers in the British parliament. 

Earlier on Thursday, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the budget watchdog, warned Britain might be entering a full-blown recession that a no-deal exit from the European Union would compound, blowing a 30-billion-pound hole in the public finances. 

(Cover: An area near the Northern Ireland and Ireland border in Newbuildings, Northern Ireland, August 16, 2017. /VCG Photo)