By THE SUPREME Court has today announced its verdict on whether Boris Johnson lawfully prorogued Parliament and the verdict is that is was UNLAWFUL!
The UK’s highest court today has given a historic ruling on the illegality of the five-week suspension of Parliament. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was accused of an unlawful “abuse of power”, is currently in the United States as the Supreme Court announced its findings, following an unprecedented hearing last week.
In total 11 justices were asked to determine whether his request to the Queen to end sittings of MPs and peers until 14th October to prorogue Parliament, for what opponents describe as an “exceptionally long” period, was unlawful. All 11 judges returned a unanimous verdict from the hearing which lasted less than half an hour.
Mr Johnson was questioned by reporters as to whether he would resign if the Government lost.
He told reporters: “I will wait and see what the justices decide, the Supreme Court decides, because as I’ve said before I believe that the reasons for … wanting a Queen’s speech were very good indeed.”
Last week the Supreme Court heard appeals over several days which resulted in judges reaching different conclusions on the legality of Mr Johnson’s actions.
Gina Miller’s challenge has already been rejected at the High Court last week, with Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and two other judges finding the prorogation to be “purely political”.
However, a cross-party group of MP’s and other peers in Scotland won a ruling that Mr Johnson’s prorogation decision was unlawful, with reasons behind the ruling being that it was “motivated by the improper purpose of stymieing Parliament”.
This mornings verdict of “unlawful” raises lots of new questions – can the Government appeal? Will Parliament need to reconvene?
It is expected that Parliament will meet as a matter of urgency to agree next steps.
We will continue to report on this story as it unfolds.
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