Historic ruling: The Supreme Court has ruled that Boris Johnson suspended UK Parliament unlawfully. The landmark decision was unanimous.
Calls for Johnson to resign: Reacting to this morning’s ruling, opposition politicians called on the Prime Minister to resign.
Johnson’s controversial decision: The PM had claimed he shut down Parliament to prepare for a new session, but critics said it was to stifle opposition over Brexit.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with the Queen on the phone from New York on Tuesday, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.
The call followed the UK Supreme Court ruling that Johnson’s advice to the Queen to prorogue the Parliament was unlawful.?
Details of their call will not be released, the spokesperson said.
As far as dodges go, the one made by the?United Kingdom’s Supreme Court?on Tuesday was, well, supreme.
The country’s highest court managed to stay clear of accusing Prime Minister Boris Johnson of misleading Queen Elizabeth II — yet still ruled on Tuesday morning that his?decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.
Get the whole story here.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
The border between Ireland, which will remain EU member, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, is the biggest sticking point in the Brexit negotiations.
Varadkar said there’s still a “wide gap” between the EU and the UK.
The UK Attorney General’s office said the government “acted in good faith and in the belief that its approach was both lawful and constitutional” when it decided to suspend Parliament.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox is the government’s chief legal advisor. As such, he would have likely played a role in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision, advising him whether or not he believed the prorogation was legal.
Cox told the government the move would be legal, Sky News reported on Tuesday. CNN could not independently verify that claim.
Cox’s office did not address that question. In the statement, it said:
At the end of the?worst day in his professional life,?many in the UK are asking: How long can the British Prime Minister stay in his job?
It’s a reasonable question to ask of the British Prime Minister. The man who can barely go a week without suffering some kind of political setback faced his biggest public embarrassment on Tuesday, as the UK’s highest court ruled that his decision to unilaterally suspend Parliament was unlawful. Worse, he might have?misled the Queen in doing so.
Under normal circumstances, you’d expect leader so under fire to realize their time was up. But Brexit has created some pretty abnormal circumstances in Westminster.
Read the full analysis here.
Boris Johnson will not be able to force through a no-deal Brexit without Parliament’s consent, former Conservative lawmaker Rory Stewart has told CNN.
Stewart told Richard Quest the Supreme Court verdict “exposed the fundamental flaw” in Johnson’s strategy. “He somehow convinced himself that he could suspend Parliament, ignore Parliament and try to ram it through.”
“Our elected body is Parliament,” added Stewart, who challenged Johnson in this summer’s Conservative leadership contest. “Parliament is sovereign … if Parliament doesn’t want a no-deal Brexit, you can’t have a no-deal Brexit.”
Stewart also accused Trump of “getting into Trumpian territory … he’s now doing things which are very very unprecedented.”
He added that Johnson should resign. But he went on: “I ran against him in the leadership, he’s just fired me form his political party and I think he’s a dangerous man. So obviously that would be my view, but obviously I’m not the person to ask.”
Stewart was one of several lawmakers expelled form the Conservative Party by Johnson after voting to block a no-deal split.
President Donald Trump played down suggestions that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson should resign after he was found to have unlawfully suspended Parliament.
Asked how he responded to calls for him to go, Johnson told reporters at the UN General Assembly, “we respect the judiciary in our country,” before adding that he disagrees “profoundly” with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Trump also said Johnson’s difficulties are “pretty much what you expected” from the Brexit process, and added he will make great progress on Brexit come October and November – to which Johnson quickly interjected, “October! October!”
Trump then repeated his false claim that he had predicted the result of the Brexit vote in Britain before polls closed. “I was there, I happened to be there the day of the vote … I even made a prediction. It was a correct prediction,” Trump said. Trump had in fact been in the UK the day after the result.
The President said he had “no reaction” to the Supreme Court ruling, calling it “another day at the office for Johnson.”
He then discussed his own administration’s “0 for 7” start in the Supreme Court, before he got a “great streak going” with the body, suggesting the same turnaround will come for Johnson.
“We’re full of respect for the justices of our Supreme Court,” Johnson interrupted, prompting Trump to laugh and tap him on the shoulder. “He’s being very nice to the courts,” Trump said with a smile.
Jeremy Corbyn has now moved onto Labour’s domestic agenda, setting out his pitch for an early election that looks more likely by the day.
“Nothing matters more than the climate emergency,” he says, praising Greta Thunberg and other young activists who have been staging strikes in recent months.
“We’re seeing ice caps melting, coral reefs dissolving, wildfires in the Arctic Circle and Brazil’s far-right leader President Bolsonaro fiddles while the Amazon burns.”
“Real security doesn’t come from belligerent posturing or reckless military interventions. It comes from international cooperation and diplomacy, and addressing the root causes of the threats we all face.”
He also discusses Labour’s domestic policy, to applause from the hall.
“I don’t think he’s fit to be prime minister,” Jeremy Corbyn says of Boris Johnson during his keynote conference speech.
“This crisis can only be solved with a general election. That election needs to take place as soon as this government’s threat of a disastrous no deal is off the table,” Corbyn says, restating his party’s position on a snap poll.
Corbyn then warns of the effects of a no-deal Brexit, saying it would leave Britain subservient to the United States in trade talks.
Johnson wants to put Britain “at the mercy of Donald Trump,” Corbyn says. “A no-deal Brexit is in reality a Trump-deal Brexit,”
“That would be the opposite of taking back control,” says Corbyn, adding that Trump us “delighted” to have Boris Johnson “in his back pocket.”
He also nods to his own party’s Brexit policy, which many observers have pointed out has been anything but unified.
Corbyn promises a second confirmatory vote, featuring two options: “credible leave alongside remain.”
“That’s not complicated,” he says, adding that he will carry out whatever the people decide.
As expected, Jeremy Corbyn has begun his remarks with a stinging attack on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s unlawful prorogation of Parliament.
“The highest court in the land has found that Boris Johnson broke the law,” opposition leader Corbyn says, after walking out to raucous applause in a packed conference hall.
“The Prime Minister acted illegally when he tried to shut down opposition to his reckless and disastrous plan to crash out of the European Union without a deal. But he has failed.”
“He will never shut down our democracy or silence the voices of us, the people,” Corbyn says. “The government will be held to account for what he has done.”
He again calls for Johnson to step down, telling the hall: “this unelected Prime Minister should now resign.” The crowd rise to the feet in response, chanting “Throw him out, throw him out.”
“He thought he could do what he wants, just as he has done all his life.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is beginning his speech to the Labour Party conference.
The speech was originally due to take place tomorrow, but has been brought forward so that Corbyn and fellow Labour lawmakers can return to Parliament tomorrow.
Lady Hale, the Supreme Court’s President and undoubtedly the breakout figure of the court’s prorogation hearings, seized the spotlight one final time on Tuesday to announce the court’s historic decision.
But while the 74-year-old’s cutting interjections and her impressive selection of brooches have won her a host of new admirers, Hale has enjoyed a stellar reputation within the legal world for many years.
She became the first female President of the Supreme Court in 2017, having earlier become its first woman justice upon its formation in October 2009.
That completed an impressive journey which began with her graduation from Cambridge University in 1966.
A specialist in family and social welfare law, Lady Hale – whose first name is Brenda – authored a case book called “The Family, Law and Society.”
Lady Hale will leave her second home at the beginning of next year, when her term comes to an end.
As Westminster slowly returns to normal, talk is turning to what happens next.
As things stand: Parliament was not officially suspended; Brexit is happening on October 31; Parliament has passed a law instructing Boris Johnson to request a Brexit extension and avoid a no-deal Brexit; Johnson says he won’t.
So Brexit becomes a game of chicken.
We know that Johnson wants an early election, as does his rival, Jeremy Corbyn.
Where they differ is on whether that happens before Brexit has happened, or after it has been extended to avoid a no-deal exit.
Corbyn has two options: call for a vote of no confidence in Johnson’s government or keep applying pressure on the Prime Minister hoping he will resign.
Both options are risky as they could lead to Johnson simply sitting tight and watching a no-deal Brexit happen by default.
But the options for Johnson are hardly enviable. Resignation offers Johnson some electoral advantages, as it would mean he could fight an election campaign while keeping his promise that he didn’t delay Brexit.
But it would also mean suffering the indignity of handing power to a man he has previously called a national security risk.
Or he can sit tight, keep suffering parliamentary losses, and watching his growing opposition run rings around him.
The Supreme Court’s ruling against Prime Minister Boris Johnson is unprecedented, a lawyer central to the case has told CNN.
Gina Miller, the lawyer who successfully appealed the High Court verdict against her legal challenge to Johnson’s prorogation, told Bianca Nobilo she was “in shock” at the unanimous, 11-0 decision.
She added she was “in a second phase of shock that the Prime Minister is now trying to downplay this.”
“This is absolutely fundamental to our constitution … he cannot – or in fact, any prime minster cannot – just close down or shut up parliament, just because parliament disagrees with them.”
“The case was not about Brexit, it was not about politics, it was about the fact that he was putting himself above the law, and the courts have found that he cannot do that.”
Boris Johnson will fly back to the UK Tuesday night after his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, a government source tells CNN.
There is no information yet if and when he may speak in the House of Commons Wednesday.
It is difficult to articulate how unprecedented the UK’s Supreme Court’s ruling is.
Britain’s highest court was established a decade ago next week. Its has been dragged into the gravitational pull of the Brexit saga before – notably when it decided Parliament must get a vote on a Brexit deal, a decision that ultimately doomed Theresa May’s attempts to leave the European Union and finally sunk her premiership.
But it has never faced a case of this magnitude, nor one which drew so much attention.
And its newest judgement could spell more immediate doom for May’s successor, given that it explicitly found that his own actions were unlawful.
That’s the view emanating from Parliament’s opposition parties, who reacted with a tsunami of attacks on Johnson.
“The Prime Minister must resign to make way for an emergency Government that can stop a No Deal Brexit,” Jo Swinson, the leader of the surging anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats, said after the judgement.
“Boris Johnson has no regard for the law … yet again he has been found out,” Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary added on Twitter. “The sooner we resume our work challenging and defeating him the better.”
And Amber Rudd, who quit Johnson’s cabinet earlier this month in protest at his Brexit strategy, said that “despite personal assurances from the PM, the Cabinet was not shown the legal advice around this prorogation.”
“This is an astonishing moment and I regret that the PM, who entered office with such goodwill, went down this route,” she added.
The Prime Minister has predictably ignored those calls for his resignation. But now that the furious lawmakers are returning to work, they could be plotting to join forces for a vote of no confidence that could force an election would give Johnson the ignominy of becoming the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister.
Boris Johnson has just given a short speech to business leaders in New York, but he addressed the damning Supreme Court ruling at the beginning.
“There’s been a court case in our country this morning which I think one or two of you may have picked up,” he joked.
“I just want to say to everyone watching back home that for the avoidance of doubt, I have the highest regard for our judiciary,” he went on. “But I must say I strongly disagree with this judgement”
He added that his government will not be deterred from delivering on the “will of the people” and securing Brexit.
And he said “we will need a Queen’s Speech to set out what we are going to do, and I think frankly that is what the people … want to see.”
“My heart lifts when I come to New York,” he added, “court judgements or otherwise,” before beginning his prepared remarks on business.
John Major, the former Conservative Prime Minister who joined the legal action against the incumbent Boris Johnson, has hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling and lambasted Johnson for his behavior.
“No Prime Minister must ever treat the monarch or Parliament in this way again,” Major said in a scathing statement.
“This was a case that should never have had to be considered, and it gave me no pleasure to be pitted against a Government and Prime Minister of my own Party,” he added.
“I hope this ruling from the Supreme Court will deter any future Prime Minister from attempting to shut down Parliament, with the effect of stifling proper scrutiny and debate, when its sitting is so plainly in the national interest,” he added.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given his first reaction to the the Supreme Court’s ruling that his decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.
Johnson attempted to deflect the political implications of the ruling: “The main thing is we’re going to get on and deliver Brexit on October 31,” he added. “The claimants in this case are determined to frustrate (Brexit) and to stop that.”
“It’s an unusual judgement to come to in my view … the prerogative of prorogation is an old one,” Johnson went on. He also said he was “not certain that the justices did say” that prorogation was unlawful and undemocratic. (They did, at least on the first part: the judges concluded the prorogation was “unlawful, void and of no effect.”)
He continued to insist Britain would leave the EU next month. “As the law currently stands, the UK leaves the EU on October 31, come what may,” Johnson said. In fact, the law also says that Johnson must ask for an extension if he cannot reach a deal.
The battle lines are being drawn for the next – and presumably rather imminent – British general election.
Boris Johnson has been desperate to avoid having to extend Brexit, knowing that would severely damage his chances of holding off Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party at the ballot box.
But his strategy has been defeated at every possible turn, and this morning’s Supreme Court ruling has handed him a humiliating favor of historic proportions.
The Brexit Party has responded in turn, slamming Johnson for a failure to deliver Brexit on October 31 and predicting he will have to resign this week.
“As soon as Parliament is recalled, Boris Johnson is probably going to have to offer his resignation or there may well be a vote of no confidence,” its chairman and MEP Richard Tice told the BBC.
“Then there is the question of a general election, and really and truly that should be as soon as possible, probably meaning the first half of November.
“And goodness me, what does it say about the so-called master strategist, Dominic Cummings? I trust he’ll be offering his resignation today,” Tice added.
Boris Johnson should cancel his plans in New York and return to London to face lawmakers, the MP and lawyer who brought the successful legal challenge has told CNN.
“There’s a constitutional crisis in the UK at the moment were heading towards Brexit without a plan,” Joanna Cherry told Hala Gorani. “So Boris Johnson needs to get back here and answer to the British Parliament for what he has been up to.”
Cherry also called on Johnson to step down.
“Once parliament is sitting again members of parliament such as myself can ask the speaker to grant urgent questions which force members of the government to come to the dispatch box and answer those questions,” she added.
As for the path forward, Cherry said “there are two options.”
“There could be a general election but the clock is ticking down to the 31st of October,” she said. “What we might need to do is, first of all, form some temporary government in order to seek an extension from the European Union, to hold a general election,?or indeed hold a second referendum on the question whether or not the UK should be leaving the EU at all.”
Boris Johnson has had some awful days since becoming Prime Minister. But Tuesday’s ruling that his decision to suspend – or prorogue – the legislative branch of his own government was unlawful really sets a new low.
Those who opposed Johnson’s suspension, from opposition leaders to several of his own Conservative lawmakers, have already made clear their intention to get Parliament back on its feet and holding Johnson to account ASAP.
John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has been out the blocks early, saying that “the prorogation was unlawful and is void” and therefore “the resumption of the business of the House of Commons” will take place Wednesday morning.
Untangling the parliamentary jargon, this means that Parliament never stopped sitting, meaning that there is no need for Johnson to lay out a legislative agenda nor to have a formal re-opening of Parliament in order to do so (his given reason for choosing to suspend in the first place).
On paper, this is all very embarrassing and damaging for a leader. But politics works in funny ways. Whenever Parliament comes back, the politics of the situation remain as deadlocked as ever and the October 31 Brexit deadline is still happening.
This leaves Johnson with two options: try to find a compromise in Parliament to get a deal through before October 31, or lean even harder into being Mr. Brexit.
As things stand, Johnson is perfectly placed to say that everyone is against him: the opposition parties, Parliament, the Speaker, and now even the courts. If he is forced to extend Brexit and hold an election, he can point his finger at his opponents and repeatedly say that the establishment stole Brexit from the people.
If he instead goes the compromise route, then he might get a deal through Parliament. However, if he does this, he leaves a space for someone else to scream Brexit betrayal.
Both options are risky, but that’s where Brexit has left British politics. And if Johnson wants a way out of this other than being the shortest-serving leader in history, then, at some point, there has to be a risk he is willing to take.
It’s been a momentous morning in London, and Boris Johnson is starting his day in New York under immense pressure.
Here’s a recap of where we stand just after 7 a.m. ET (noon local time).
UK Parliament’s upper house, the House of Lords, has confirmed it join the House of Commons in resuming at the “earliest opportunity.”
Following this morning’s Supreme Court ruling that deemed Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament unlawful, the Lord Speaker, Lord Fowler, said:
John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has called for the House of Commons to return tomorrow, in a speech outside Parliament.
He said he welcomes the judgement from the Supreme Court.
“The citizens of the UK are entitled to expect that Parliament does discharge its core functions,” Bercow said.
He added that he has instructed the House authorities to prepare for the resumption of Parliament, and to “ensure the House of Commons sits tomorrow, and that it does so at 11:30 a.m.”
It will not be possible for a Prime Minister’s Questions to be held, he says, which will be a relief to Boris Johnson – who is currently in New York. But there will be full scope for urgent questions to be tabled.
Jeremy Corbyn is set to make his keynote speech at Labour’s party conference tomorrow, but the party would likely move forward his remarks to allow Corbyn to attend Parliament.
The first opportunity to hear from Boris Johnson will be when he leaves his hotel in New York and heads to the United Nations General Assembly later this morning.
“Undoubtedly there will be a barrage of reporters’ questions – and resignation will be high on the list,” says CNN’s international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.
The decision was announced in the early hours of the morning on the East Coast, and Johnson will likely be working on a response.
“Does he wake up this morning and recognize this is not like the other days?” Robertson asks, noting he “can’t bluff his way through” this ruling.
“Will he change his agenda here and return to the UK?” adds Robertson.
There’s been no word yet from Boris Johnson, who will have received a rude awakening early this morning.
The British Prime Minister is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where news of the judgement broke shortly after 5:30 a.m. local time.
His team is now likely scrambling to respond to the staggering decision, which ruled that Johnson’s suspension of Parliament was unlawful, void and has no effect.
They will also likely be assessing his scheduled speech to the assembly,
But he will undoubtedly have to face the music sooner rather than later. The court’s ruling is the latest and most significant blow to the Prime Minister, who has already lost every vote he has faced in Parliament and seen his majority in the chamber wiped away.
The Supreme Court did not overtly say that Boris Johnson lied to the Queen about the reasons for his prorogation of Parliament, but several lawmakers have already said that is the implication of its judgement.
Importantly, the judges ruled on the effect of the prorogation rather than attempting to define the motive, which allowed it to deliver a devastating judgement without explicitly accusing Johnson of lying to the monarch.
Because the effect of the suspension was unlawful, the judges did not need to consider Johnson’s motive.
Here’s the key part of the ruling:
The court did, however, uphold the decision taken by Scotland’s highest civil court, which went further in its ruling by saying that Johnson did mislead the Queen.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has called Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament “the worst political decision ever.”
But rather than criticizing the Prime Minister, he urged Johnson’s de facto chief of staff Dominic Cummings to step down.
Cummings is widely seen as the mastermind behind Johnson’s Brexit strategy.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke at his party’s conference in Brighton, England shortly after the news of the ruling broke.
He says Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down Parliament “demonstrates a contempt for democracy and abuse of power by him.”
Corbyn says he will be in touch with the Speaker of the House of Commons immediately to demand that Parliament is recalled, and “demand that he obeys the law” forcing him to extend Article 50 if he can’t form a Brexit deal.
“A Labour government would want to be held to account – we wouldn’t bypass democracy,” he adds.
“Obey the law, take no deal off the table, and have an election tot elect a government that respects democracy,” Corbyn concludes.
Watch the moment the Supreme Court’s President Lady Hale announced its momentous judgement below.
The court went further than even most of Johnson’s critics had expected – by not only deciding the prorogation was unlawful, but deeming that it had absolutely no effect whatsoever.
Massive applause broke out in the New Statesman fringe event at the Labour Party conference when someone in the audience shouted “unlawful” as the Supreme Court judgement was handed down.
Reacting to news, a smiling Emily Thornberry MP, shadow foreign secretary, said: “I’m not even prorogued!”
When it was pointed out that the Tories could lose a lot of money if their conference is affected by the lifting of the prorogation, Thornberry reacted: “What a shame.”
“I think we’ve played a blinder in terms of parliamentary tactics, and we’ve done it as well as we can, and I hope we continue to do so.”
The British pound strengthened against the US dollar after the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful.
The currency was trading as much as 0.4% higher in the minutes after the decision was announced, before giving up some of its gains.
The pound’s reaction reflects increased optimism that Johnson will be prevented from carrying out his pledge to take Britain out of the European Union on October 31, even without an exit deal that would protect trade.
Crashing out of the European Union would likely produce another sharp decline in the value of the pound.
Most economists say a disorderly break would also plunge the UK into recession and cause a sharp decline in the value of homes in the country.
MPs are responding to the Supreme Court’s decision, with many calling for Boris Johnson to resign.
Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, in an apparent show of support for the decision against his party leader, tweeted a picture of himself inside the House of Commons chamber.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said Johnson “should resign.”
Backbencher David Lammy agreed:
And the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Parliament must reconvene immediately.
John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has said lawmakers must reconvene “without delay” after the Supreme Court’s stunning decision to not only rule Boris Johnson’s suspension unlawful, but to quash the prorogation entirely.
In a statement, Bercow said: “I welcome the Supreme Court’s judgement that the prorogation of Parliament was unlawful.”
“The judges have rejected the Government’s claim that closing down Parliament for five weeks was merely standard practice to allow for a new Queen’s Speech.”
“In reaching their conclusion, they have vindicated the right and duty of Parliament to meet at this crucial time to scrutinise the executive and hold Ministers to account,” he added.
Joanna Cherry, the lawmaker and lawyer who brought the Scottish case that the Supreme Court has sided with, is making a statement outside the court.
“This is an absolutely momentous decision,” she said on the back of the win.
“There is nothing to stop members of Parliament such as myself and my colleagues from resuming immediately” in scrutinizing the government, Cherry adds.
“I am absolutely delighted that the United Kingdom Supreme Court has agreed with Scotland’s Supreme Court,” she notes, before addressing Boris Johnson.
“His position is untenable and he should have to guts to do the decent thing and resign,” she says.
Lady Hale, President of the UK Supreme Court, said in her ruling this morning that the prorogation came about in “exceptional circumstances.”
Parliament “has a right to a voice” as to how a rise in its sitting comes about, she added.
She said the effect on democracy of the prorogation was “extreme,” and that no evidence showed why such a long suspension was necessary.?
“Parliament has not been prorogued,” she added – a unanimous judgement by all 11 judges.
The Supreme Court has ruled that Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament was unlawful, in a stunning and historic blow to the Prime Minister.
The Supreme Court’s President Lady Hale says the circumstances of the current prorogation have not occurred before, and are unlikely to arise again.
She is summarizing the circumstances of the prorogation and how the case came to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court President Lady Hale is reading out the judges’ ruling into Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament.
The stage is set at the Supreme Court in London, where torrential rain has been drenching the reporters and protesters outside.
Microphones are set up outside the historic building’s entrance, and a handful of activists are making their voices heard.
“Whether you’re outside this court today getting absolutely soaked in the rain because you believe that the judges should reopen Parliament, or uphold the Prime Minister’s decision to prorogue it, this is about future prime ministers and precedent,” Naomi Smith, the CEO of pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain, told the PA Media news agency.
Many of Johnson’s critics fear a total victory for the Prime Minister – where the Supreme Court rules that judges cannot intervene in a prorogation of Parliament because it is a political decision – would set a precedent that would allow future leaders to shut down the chamber almost as and when they please.
Meanwhile, a pro-Brexit protester holding a Union Jack umbrella told PA Media of the case: “It’s just stalling Brexit and all the underhand tactics of both sides really is just embarrassing.”
Time for a refresher.
Johnson announced his intention to prorogue Parliament at the end of August. The move took effect earlier this month?amid chaotic scenes in the small hours of Tuesday morning, and Parliament won’t open again until October 14.
Why? The Prime Minister said the suspension was needed to make way for a new Queen’s Speech – which sets out the government’s legislative agenda and marks the start of a new parliamentary session. By convention, a Queen’s Speech usually takes place every year, and Parliament is always prorogued before it is reopened by the monarch.
How long is the suspension? Five weeks – but for most of that period, Parliament may not have been sitting anyway. It was due to rise at the end of this week for party conference season, returning in the second week of October. So Johnson’s prorogation has only added a handful of days to the length of time MPs are away – though some lawmakers were plotting to force the House of Commons to sit during the conferences recess.
So why is it controversial? Johnson’s opponents have claimed he is shutting down Parliament to stifle debate, and to allow the clock to run down on Brexit.
In an extraordinary intervention, the Speaker of the House John Bercow – whose role is traditionally impartial – said it was “blindly obvious” Johnson was attempting to limit debate over Brexit with the move.
“Shutting down Parliament would be an offense against the democratic process and the rights of Parliamentarians as the people’s elected representatives,” Bercow said in a statement.
Does the suspension make a no-deal Brexit more likely? It’s unclear – in theory, no-deal is off the table on October 31 because of new legislation instructing Johnson to ask for a delay if he can’t make a pact.
But Johnson isn’t backing down from bullish rhetoric about leaving on that date – so something is going to have to give.
If the Prime Minister finds a way around the law, there will be very little time in late October for lawmakers to pass another one.
The Supreme Court’s judges have been considering appeals to two rulings – one, from London, that deemed it was not up to the courts to rule on prorogation, and another from Scotland that decided courts could make a judgement, and that Johnson’s prorogation was unlawful.
It’s too close to call what the judges will have decided – but there are three vague directions in which they could rule.
Good morning from London – where, in less than two hours, the Supreme Court will hand down a landmark ruling on whether Boris Johnson unlawfully suspended Parliament.
Judges heard from both sides during a three-day hearing last week, and will announce their decision at 10:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. ET).
The Prime Minister says he prorogued Parliament in order to prepare for a new Queen’s Speech. But critics say it was to shut down debate over Brexit; they allege he lied to the Queen over the real reasons.
It’s still unclear what will happen if the court does rule against Johnson, who is currently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He has reportedly refused to rule out shutting down Parliament again.
Opposition lawmakers are likely to react with fury to such a move – and demands will flood in for Parliament to be re-opened as soon as possible.