At the High Court in London, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett and two other judges rejected campaigner and businesswoman Gina Miller’s challenge, finding that the prorogation was “purely political” and not a matter for the courts.
But in Scotland, a cross-party group of MPs and peers led by SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC won a ruling from the Inner House of the Court of Session that Mr Johnson’s prorogation decision was unlawful because it was “motivated by the improper purpose of stymieing Parliament”.
Could Boris return to the Queen regardless of the verdict?
Asked whether he would rule out proroguing Parliament again before the current October 31 Brexit deadline, the PM replied: “I’m saying that Parliament will have bags of time to scrutinise the deal that I hope we will be able to do.”
Mr Johnson was asked whether he was nervous about the Supreme Court judgment in an interview in New York, and replied: “It takes a lot to make me nervous these days.
“All I can tell you is that I have the highest regard for the judiciary in this country, I will look at the ruling with care.”
He was questioned by reporters on the flight to New York over whether he would resign if the Government lost.
“I will wait and see what the justices decide, the Supreme Court decides, because as I’ve said before I believe that the reasons for … wanting a Queen’s speech were very good indeed,” he said.
Read More:
The judgment in ‘R (on behalf of Miller) v The Prime Minister’ and ‘Cherry and others v Advocate General for Scotland’ will be handed down at 10.30am on Tuesday 24 September in Courtroom 1 https://t.co/yo4BzgEvdE pic.twitter.com/3LF96kYrlS — UK Supreme Court (@UKSupremeCourt) September 23, 2019
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been accused of an unlawful “abuse of power”, will be in the United States when the Supreme Court announces its findings, following an unprecedented hearing last week.
Eleven justices have been asked to determine whether his advice to the Queen to prorogue Parliament, for what opponents describe as an “exceptionally long” period, was unlawful.
