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UK MPs return after bombshell court ruling
LONDON, Sept 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – British MPs return to parliament on Wednesday following a
momentous Supreme Court ruling that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend
parliament was unlawful.
The judgement has dented Johnson’s authority, prompting calls for his resignation and casting
further doubt on his promise to pull Britain out of the EU on October 31, come what may.
The Conservative leader was due to arrive back from New York in the early hours, heading
straight into a political maelstrom triggered by Tuesday’s damning court ruling that his
decision to suspend parliament for five weeks was unlawful.
The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, immediately announced that MPs would
reconvene at 11.30 am (1030 GMT) on Wednesday, while the upper House of Lords said it would
return later the same day.
Bercow said there would be no Prime Minister’s Questions — a weekly session held on
Wednesdays — but there would be “full scope for urgent questions, for ministerial statements,
and for applications for emergency debates”.
– ‘Action tomorrow’ –
The ruling throws his Brexit plans into disarray — coming after a series of defeats in
parliament that have curbed his plans for Brexit even if there is no divorce deal with
Brussels.
Johnson told British media he “strongly disagreed” with the decision but said he would respect
it.
The prime minister is likely to also renew his call for an early election to end the stand-
off with parliament, having said in New York on Tuesday that it was “the obvious thing to do”.
Despite the series of hammer blows in the House of Commons and the courts and losing his
parliamentary majority, Johnson is still riding high in the polls and is keen for an election
to try and win enough seats to allow him to carry out his plans to leave the EU.
But he requires the consent of opposition parties to hold a snap election and they are so far
reluctant, preferring to use their working majority to keep a tight leash on Johnson as the
Brexit deadline day of October 31 looms.
Labour has said it will agree to a vote once a no-deal Brexit has been ruled out, with a
spokesman at its party conference saying on Tuesday that they will be taking “action tomorrow”
regarding an election.
The 11 Supreme Court judges ruled on Tuesday that the parliamentary suspension, which came
into effect this month, was “void and of no effect” because the prorogation was unlawful.
– ‘Dead in a ditch’ –
Johnson had argued that shutting down parliament until October 14 was a routine move to allow
his new government to set out a new legislative programme.
But critics accused him of trying to silence MPs.
Delivering the unanimous verdict, Supreme Court president Brenda Hale said “the decision to
advise Her Majesty (Queen Elizabeth II) to prorogue was unlawful…because it had the effect of
frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions”.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour party, led calls for the prime minister to
step down.
“I invite Boris Johnson… to consider his position, and become the shortest serving prime
minister there has ever been,” he told his party’s annual conference.
But Johnson is likely to resist such demands, insisting that he must take Britain out of the
EU next month whatever the circumstances.
In the week between returning from their summer holiday and prorogation on September 10, MPs
passed a law aiming to stop “no deal”.
The law obliges Johnson to ask to delay Brexit by three months if he has not agreed a divorce
deal at an EU summit on October 17 and 18, but the prime minister has said he would rather “be
dead in a ditch” than ask for another extension, setting up another potential showdown.
Johnson said Tuesday that he hoped to amend the divorce deal struck between the EU and his
predecessor Theresa May, which has been rejected by MPs three times.
BSS/AFP/AU/09:06 hrs