High Court rules Barnaby Joyce and four other MPs are ineligible to serve in Parliament

LIVE BLOG: Barnaby Joyce says he continued to sit in Cabinet, despite predicting the court ruling, as he was waiting on the advice of the Solicitor-General.

FIVE federal MPs including Barnaby Joyce have been ruled ineligible to sit in Parliament, throwing Australian politics into unprecedented chaos.

The landmark High Court ruling today is a major blow to Malcolm Turnbull, who has now lost his one-seat majority in Parliament. Only independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Nationals senator Matt Canavan have kept their seats after the High Court handed down its ruling on the “citizenship seven” today. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce will now have to fight to regain the seat of New England, although the man who used to hold the seat, Tony Windsor, will not contest the seat. A by-election for the seat on December 2 is expected to be called today. Today’s decision means the government will be without a majority in the lower house for one sitting week in November.

Originally published as High Court rules Barnaby Joyce and four other MPs are ineligible to serve in Parliament