‘I urge the PM to immediately recall parliament’
legal challenge to prorogation brought at the High Court in London last week had failed.
Labour’s Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer welcomed the ruling, saying: “No one in their right mind believed Boris Johnson’s reason for shutting down parliament.
“I urge the prime minister to immediately recall parliament so we can debate this judgement and decide what happens next.”
Scotland’s first minister, Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon, echoed his call.
“The immediate political implications are clear . . . parliament must be recalled immediately to allow the essential work of scrutiny to continue,” she tweeted.
The summary judgement said the court would make an order declaring that Johnson’s advice to the queen and the subsequent prorogation was “null and of no effect”.
However, the government source said there would be no order issued ahead of next week’s appeal.
Legal commentator David Allen Green suggested that the case was likely to fail when it reached the Supreme Court, pointing out that Scottish law was different from that of England and Wales.
“That is why I and others would have put the chances of the action succeeding in London as zero.
“And that is why cannily the action was launched in Scotland, where judges and the law would be far more receptive,” he tweeted.
Johnson took of f ice in July promising to deliver on t he 2016 referendu m vote f or Brex it by ta k i ng Br ita i n out of t he EU on schedu le on Oc tober 31 whate ver t he circumstances.
He says he is working hard to reach new ex it terms, after t he dea l negot iated by h is pre de c e s s or T here s a May was rejected by MPs, despite EU leaders insisting t he current ter ms a re t he best on of fer.
Last week, bet ween returning from their summer holid a y s a n d p a r l i a me n t ’s suspension, MPs passed a law to forc e Joh nson to delay Brexit if he does not get a new dea l by a n EU su mmit on October 17-18.
Spanish Prime Minister Pe d r o Sa n c h e z s a i d o n Wednesday that the bloc should not make any further concessions to Britain.