Court clears way for Commons to seize control from Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson is returning early from the US for what looms as a fiery resumption of parliament.

Boris Johnson is flying back from New York early in order to attend what is shaping up to be a fiery resumption of parliament later on Wednesday (AEST) after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled his five week prorogation was illegal and void.

Parliament will now demand, at the very least, an explanation from the British Prime Minister, and his Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox, who told cabinet last month that the lengthy prorogation was legal.

Before he left New York the British Prime Minister spoke to the Queen, Downing St confirms. It is not certain whether Mr Johnson apologised to Queen Elizabeth for misleading her.

In New York for the UN Climate ­Action Summit and meetings with US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Mr Johnson said he would respect the judges’ verdict but did not rule out trying to suspend parliament again.

“I have the utmost respect for our judiciary, (but) I don’t think this was the right decision,” he said.

“As the law currently stands, the UK leaves the EU on October 31st come what may, but the exciting thing for us now is to get a good deal,” he said. “That is what we are working on.

“And, to be honest, it is not made much easier by this kind of stuff in parliament or in the courts.”

After the dramatic legal loss, Mr Johnson might now try and call for a fresh general election, which would require a two-thirds parliamentary support. The Telegraph UK reports that Mr Johnson was expected to table a vote as early as Thursday.

The government may also seek a recess of parliament to allow the Conservative Party annual conference scheduled for next week, although Labour is likely to reject that. Mr Johnson may also try to prorogue parliament for a shorter period.

In a ruling that reinforces the power of British courts over the monarch and the government, 11 Supreme Court judges determined on Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted illegally in suspending parliament for five weeks from September 10 to block opposition attempts to delay his plan to leave the EU, “no ifs, no buts”, on October 31.

“The effect on democracy was extreme,’’ the president of the court, Lady Brenda Hale, said of the proroguing of parliament until October 14. There were immediate calls from Labour, Scottish nationalists and Remain supporters for the Prime Minister to resign, something he has refused to do.

Mr Johnson told a business gathering in New York hours after the decision: “I must say I strongly disagree with this judgment. In the UK we will not be deterred from delivering on the will of the people to come out of the EU on October 31st. We will be pushing on with infrastructure, extra 20,000 police and the National Health Service and do that we will need a Queen’s Speech to set out what we need to do. It’s what the people want to see, to get on with a strong domestic agenda and see Brexit delivered by October 31.’’

Mr Cox’s advice to Cabinet last month stated that any accusation of unlawfulness to prorogue the parliament was motivated by political considerations.

The Attorney-General recommended the Cabinet go ahead with this because it was legal.

Sky News was leaked an internal document that showed Mr Cox outlined the legal arguments in favour of prorogation of parliament during a conference call last month.

But the Supreme Court ruled otherwise, quoting legal precedent from four centuries ago that the courts had judicial authority over the government.

The leaders of all opposition parties immediately called for Mr Johnson’s resignation.

Labour Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer said “The Attorney-General will have to consider his position, he has had a unanimous legal decision the other way: at the very least the Attorney-General makes a statement to parliament.’’

The leaders of all three opposition parties also called for Mr Johnson’s resignation.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on Mr Johnson to consider his position and call a new election.

“I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, to ‘consider his position­’,” he told delegates at Labour­’s annual conference in Brighton

But the reopening of parliament at 11.30am local time (8.30pm AEST), where the speaker John Bercow will allow emergency questions, is poised to be highly volatile and uncertain, although opposition parties appear reluctant to call for an immediate vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s government because they don’t want to trigger a general election.

Instead they are trying to legislate a hamstrung minority prime minister into carrying out processes to which he is vehemently opposed.

Mr Corbyn said he didn’t want an election until after the threat of a no-deal Brexit had passed.

”This crisis can be only settled with a general election,’’ he said, adding: “that election needs to take place as soon as this government’s threat of a disastrous no deal is taken off the table, that condition is what the MPs passed into law before Boris Johnson illegally closed down parliament.’’

He added: “N one can trust this government not to use this crisis of their own making to drive this country over a no deal cliff edge.’’

Mr Corbyn then laid out his Labour government plans, including calling for another Brexit referendum within six months of taking office. He repeated previous promises of taxing the top five per cent of the country to fund free child care, health care, flexible working hours for workers undergoing the menopause, and the creation of a national drug manufacturer to supply generic medicines and free prescriptions.

In addition, Mr Corbyn said a Labour government would nationalise the rail, mail, water and national grid, and provide free education for everyone throughout life, including scrapping university tuition fees and providing free child care. Earlier the Labour conference had agreed it would abolish private schools and have no official position on Brexit, apart from committing to a second referendum.

Mr Corbyn, who said Mr Johnson should resign, was also scathing of Mr Johnson’s talks with Donald Trump yesterday. The US president said of Mr Johnson ‘’it takes a man like this to get it done’’ and spoke about completing an exceptional and magnificent new trade deal with the UK.

Mr Corbyn claimed that ‘’a no-deal Brexit would be a Trump-Brexit’’ and benefit countries like the United States at the expense of Britain’s prosperity.

Court clears way for Commons to seize control

The ruling means that the British parliament has seized back control — from the Queen and Boris Johnson’s government — and will reconvene immed­iately.

Lady Brenda Hale reading out the Supreme Court ruling. Picture: AP

Mr Johnson, in New York for the UN Climate ­Action Summit and meetings with US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, said late on Tuesday that he would respect the judges’ verdict.

“I have the utmost respect for our judiciary, (but) I don’t think this was the right decision,” he said in New York.

He did not rule out trying again to suspend parliament. “As the law currently stands, the UK leaves the EU on October 31st come what may, but the exciting thing for us now is to get a good deal,” he said. “That is what we are working on.

“And, to be honest, it is not made much easier by this kind of stuff in parliament or in the courts.”

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said parliament would reconvene at 11.30am (8.30pm AEST) on Wednesday. “As the embodiment of our parliamentary democracy, the House of Commons must conven­e without delay,” he said.

One of Mr Johnson’s first ­duties may be to meet with the Queen. He could try to prorogue parliament again but this time for a traditional period of several days, so that a new session can begin with a Queen’s Speech, which lays out the government’s agenda.

As soon as parliament begins sitting, Mr Johnson could face a vote to refer him to the Supreme Court for contempt, amid accusations that he failed to release all of the government’s Yellowhammer documents, which set out the govern­ment’s no-deal planning.

The Labour opposition, led by Jeremy Corbyn, could also try to secure a no-confidence motion in the Tory government.

Sterling initially rallied by about a third of a cent against the US dollar after the news, before paring gains slightly, and at the time of publication stood 0.25 per cent up on the day at $US1.246.

The Supreme Court intervened after the English High Court had ruled Mr Johnson’s actions to prorogue­ parliament for a period longer than normal wasn’t an issue it could rule on, but in a separate case the highest Scottish civil court found it had the jurisdiction to make a ruling and found Mr Johnson had misled the Queen.

Mr Corbyn called on Mr Johnson to consider his position and call a new election.

“I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, to ‘consider his position­’,” he told delegates at Labour­’s annual conference in Brighton. To cheers and chants of “Johnson out!”, Mr Corbyn said the British Prime Minister should become the shortest-ever serving leader and that Labour was ready to form a government.

There were drama­tic scenes outside court after the ruling. Scottish­ MP Joanna Cherry, who had initiated the Edinburgh court ­action on behalf of 75 politicians, said the Supreme Court showed that both parliament and the monarch­ were not above the law. Welsh party leader Liz Saville-Roberts said the Queen “would be deeply disappointed’’ to be dragged into such controversy.

Mr Bercow, a Remainer, said while Prime Minister’s Questions would not be held on Wednesday, he would allow plenty of scope for urgent questions for ministerial statements and for applications for emergency debates. The constit­utional battle that has played out in Britain’s highest court has resulted in the biggest upheaval of parliamentary rules in four centuries.

Lady Hale said the court had the right to make such a decision, referencing the Bill of Rights in 1689 and a finding in 1611 that the king had no prerogative over the parliament.

In 1628, King Charles I prorogued parliament, which event­ually led to the Civil War, and he lost his head. His son, Charles II, prorogued parliament several times, including to stop James II from succeeding to the crown which led to the Bill of Rights 1689.

Lady Hale said the decision of the Supreme Court was unanimous. “The decision to advise prorogue was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating and preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its functions without reasonable justification,” she said.

“The court has concluded the Prime Minister’s advice to the Queen was unlawful, void and to no effect … (the prorogation) should be quashed. Parliament has not been prorogued and it is unanimous.

“It is now for parliament and the House of Commons Speaker John Bercow and the Lords’ Speaker Norman Fowler to decide what to do next. They can take immediate­ steps to meet as soon as possible. It is not clear to us that any step needs to come from the Prime Minister.”

Scottish National Party leader in Westminster Ian Blackford said “’this is a stunning judgment’’.

“We have a job to do and we must be back in parliament immediate­ly, we want to get back to work, and Boris Johnson must resign,’’ he said.

One of the lawyers involved in the case, Jolyon Maugham, said that the judges had been threat­ened by a Downing Street source, subject to death threats and had their home addresses published.