World·Breaking
In a major blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the U.K.’s highest court ruled Tuesday his decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks in the crucial countdown to the country’s Brexit deadline is illegal.
Judges says prorogue order is ‘void and of no effect’
The Associated Press ·
In a major blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the U.K.’s highest court ruled Tuesday his decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks in the crucial countdown to the country’s Brexit deadline is illegal.
The unanimous Supreme Court ruling declared the order to suspend Parliament “void and of no effect.”
Supreme Court President Brenda Hale said the suspension “was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification.”
She said the court’s decision means Parliament was never legally suspended and is technically still sitting.
The House of Commons must convene without delay, Speaker John Bercow said on Tuesday, welcoming the ruling.
“As the embodiment of our parliamentary democracy, the House of Commons must convene without delay. To this end, I will now consult the party leaders as a matter of urgency,” Bercow said in a statement released by his office.
In this nation without a written constitution, the case marked a rare confrontation between the prime minister, the courts and Parliament over their rights and responsibilities.
It revolved around whether Johnson acted lawfully when he advised the queen to suspend Parliament for five weeks during a crucial time frame before the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline when the U.K. is scheduled to leave the European Union.
Johnson, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, has refused to say whether he will resign if he is found to have broken the law or if he will seek to shut down Parliament again.
The ruling followed three days of hearings last week before a panel of 11 judges.
The court rejected the government’s assertions the decision to suspend Parliament until Oct. 14 was routine and not related to Brexit. It claimed that under Britain’s unwritten constitution, it is a matter for politicians, not courts, to decide.
The government’s opponents argue Johnson illegally shut down Parliament just weeks before the country is due to leave the 28-nation bloc for the “improper purpose” of dodging lawmakers’ scrutiny of his Brexit plans.
They also accused Johnson of misleading the Queen, whose formal approval was needed to suspend the legislature.
Johnson and Parliament have been at odds since he took power in July with the determination to take Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a divorce deal with Europe.
Calls for Johnson’s resignation
British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn called on Johnson on Tuesday to consider his position and call a new election.
To huge cheers and chants of “Johnson out!” Corbyn said the prime minister should become the shortest-ever serving leader and Labour is ready to form a government.
“I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, to ‘consider his position,'” Corbyn told delegates at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Brighton.
Scottish National Party lawmaker Joanna Cherry said Johnson should resign because of the Supreme Court ruling.
Cherry is one of the people who brought the legal case against the prime minister.
“His position is untenable and he should have the guts for once to do the decent thing and resign,” she said Tuesday.
