News / National
Challenge to UK Parliament suspension rejected
06 Sep 2019 at 06:03hrs | Views
A legal challenge over Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to suspend Parliament has been rejected in the High Court.
The case was brought by businesswoman Gina Miller, who argued the move was "an unlawful abuse of power".
Rejecting Ms Miller's case, Lord Justice Burnett said she could immediately appeal because of the important points of law at stake.
The appeal is expected to be heard at the Supreme Court on 17 September.
Ms Miller said she was "very disappointed with the judgment".
She added: "We feel it is absolutely vital that Parliament should be sitting. We are therefore pleased that the judges have given us permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, which we will be doing, and they feel that our case has the merit to be handed up."
A similar legal challenge heard at Edinburgh's Court of Session on Wednesday also failed.
The prime minister announced on 28 August he wanted to shut down Parliament, a process known as proroguing, for five weeks ahead of a Queen's Speech on 14 October - starting next week.
His political opponents argued at the time that Mr Johnson's aim was to avoid parliamentary scrutiny and to stop them passing legislation that would prevent the UK leaving the European Union without a deal on 31 October.
The UK government insisted this was not the case and said the aim of proroguing Parliament was to allow Mr Johnson to set out his legislative plans in the Queen's Speech while still allowing sufficient time for MPs to debate Brexit.
A bill designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit has since been passed by MPs and is expected to gain royal assent before the shutdown next week.
The case was brought by businesswoman Gina Miller, who argued the move was "an unlawful abuse of power".
Rejecting Ms Miller's case, Lord Justice Burnett said she could immediately appeal because of the important points of law at stake.
The appeal is expected to be heard at the Supreme Court on 17 September.
Ms Miller said she was "very disappointed with the judgment".
She added: "We feel it is absolutely vital that Parliament should be sitting. We are therefore pleased that the judges have given us permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, which we will be doing, and they feel that our case has the merit to be handed up."
A similar legal challenge heard at Edinburgh's Court of Session on Wednesday also failed.
The prime minister announced on 28 August he wanted to shut down Parliament, a process known as proroguing, for five weeks ahead of a Queen's Speech on 14 October - starting next week.
His political opponents argued at the time that Mr Johnson's aim was to avoid parliamentary scrutiny and to stop them passing legislation that would prevent the UK leaving the European Union without a deal on 31 October.
The UK government insisted this was not the case and said the aim of proroguing Parliament was to allow Mr Johnson to set out his legislative plans in the Queen's Speech while still allowing sufficient time for MPs to debate Brexit.
A bill designed to prevent a no-deal Brexit has since been passed by MPs and is expected to gain royal assent before the shutdown next week.
Source - BBC
