24/09/2019
UK Constitutional Crisis? By Mark Greenborgh
Tuesday 24th September saw a landmark legal ruling from the Supreme Court in London. The challenges made by businesswoman Gina Miller in the English Courts, and Scottish MP, Joanna Cherry, in Scotland, saw the full UK Supreme Court decide whether the decision to prorogue (or suspend) Parliament for 5 weeks in the run up to the Brexit deadline was lawful.
Whilst the case threw up lots of interesting legal and constitutional arguments, it came down to what is Parliament there to do: and was it reasonable to suspend it? The answer shook the political establishment and spells real trouble for Boris Johnson. PM for only 2 months, and having lost all 6 votes he has brought before the Commons, Mr Johnson hoped to send MPs away to attend their party conferences, whilst he prepared the new Queen’s Speech to be delivered on 14th October.
Of course, no Parliament meant no more votes, no more PM Questions and no more questions from MPs on what sort of deal Mr Johnson wanted, or the implications of No Deal on Eu citizens in the UK or UK citizens in Europe.
President of the Court, Baroness Hale, and all 11 Justices ruled unanimously that this was an unusually long suspension, it prevented Parliament from doing its job, in quite exceptional circumstances, the run-up to a fundamental change in the constitution of the UK, namely Brexit planned for 31st October and it was unlawful.
What happens now? The Court ruled that the PM’s advice to the Queen was unlawful and therefore everything that followed was null and void: It never happened. So, Parliament will meet tomorrow, and everything carries on as normal. Well perhaps, but there is bound to be political turmoil at the sight of the Prime Minister having found to have abused his powers and led the Queen to make an unlawful Order. Does this change the outcome of Brexit? Who knows? But our elected MPs will now be in Parliament asking questions and holding the Government to account at this most sensitive and critical time. Crisis? What crisis, the UK constitution works. Everyone, even the Prime Minister and the Orders of the Queen, are subject to the Rule of Law. That at least is reassuring. Read more in Fridays edition of The Weekender Newspaper or online
https://www.weekender.news/online-paper/