The U.K. Parliament is set to reconvene on Wednesday following a historic ruling defeating Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament in the run up to Brexit, CNBC reported.
The Supreme Court ruled that it had been unlawful for Johnson’s government to suspend (or “prorogue” as the process is formally known) Parliament for five weeks, the eleven judges ruling unanimously that there had been no justification for such an “extreme action.”
Essentially, the court ruled that the decision by Johnson’s government to advise the queen to suspend parliament was unlawful “because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification.”
Responding to the ruling, Johnson told the BBC the verdict was not right but would be respected. Nonetheless, there were widespread calls for Johnson to resign. He said the government would “get on and deliver Brexit on October 31st come what may.”
Now, Parliament is set to reconvene in Westminster on Wednesday morning. Experts have pondered what the judgment could mean for Brexit, Boris Johnson’s political future and Parliament.
Parliament had been shut down from September 10 onwards and had been due to re-open on October 14, just a few weeks before the Brexit departure date of October 31. There is currently no Brexit deal in place although lawmakers have already voted to prevent Johnson’s government from taking the U.K. out of the EU without a deal. The prime minister has repeatedly said the U.K. will leave the EU no matter what on Oct 31, leaving little time to strike a deal with Brussels.
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