Court Rules Against Legal Challenge To Stop Boris Johnson Suspending Parliament
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A legal challenge aimed at stopping Boris Johnson from suspending the UK Parliament from early September until 14 October has been temporarily denied at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
Campaigners had hoped for an interim interdict, which would force Johnson to suspend the prorogation.
However, the judge refused to arrive at a judgement until a full hearing of the case, which has been brought forward by three days to next Tuesday (3 September) 'in the interest of justice'.
Scotland's highest civil court received the petition from a cross-party group of MPs and peers earlier this summer after suspicions arose that the Prime Minster was considering proroguing the Parliament.
They called for the interim interdict this Thursday (29 August) to stop the suspension until a final decision was made on the case.
Judge Lord Doherty listened to arguments from lawyers appointed by the campaigners, as well as legal representatives from the UK Government at a hearing.
However, Judge Doherty dismissed the action on Friday.
He said: "I'm not satisfied that it has been demonstrated that there's a need for an interim suspension or an interim interdict to be granted at this stage."
However, the judge did agree to move the full hearing forward to Tuesday. He said: "I'm going to move the substantive hearing forward to Tuesday.
"Weighing consideration in the balance, it's in the interest of justice that it proceeds sooner rather than later."
Johnson wrote to MPs this week explaining that he was planning to suspend Parliament ahead of a Queen's Speech on 14 October.
He wrote: "We've got to move ahead now with a new legislative programme, and there will be ample time on both sides of that crucial 17 October [European Council] summit, in Parliament, for MPs to debate the EU, to debate Brexit, and all the other issues."
However, critics of Johnson's move said that he was trying to restrict the amount of time MPs would have to debate stopping a No Deal Brexit in the House of Commons.
Speaker of the House John Bercow called Johnson's move a 'constitutional outrage' and added: "However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop Parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country."
The Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, who is also an outspoken critic of the move to suspend Parliament, said: "I am appalled at the recklessness of Johnson's government, which talks about sovereignty and yet is seeking to suspend Parliament to avoid scrutiny of its plans for a reckless No Deal Brexit. This is an outrage and a threat to our democracy."
A petition to stop Johnson going ahead with his plan has now been signed nearly 1.6 million times.
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