Plaid joins bid to stop Parliament being suspended
PLAID Cymru has joined a legal challenge to stop Boris Johnson trying to suspend Parliament over Brexit.
MPs and peers from across the political divide want a court to rule that the next Prime Minister cannot close down Parliament before the latest Brexit deadline of October 31 – going further than a vote which has already taken place in the Commons.
The politicians involved in this latest action include Plaid Cymru and Labour MPs, Scottish MPs from the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Labour Party, as well as English independent, Labour and Green MPs.
The group has written to the Government’s legal representative in Scotland, informing him that, in seven days, they will sue for a court guarantee that the Prime Minister cannot close down Parliament in the run-up to October 31.
The action will be brought before the Court of Session – which sits through August – and seeks a “declarator” that the Prime Minister cannot lawfully advise the Queen to suspend Parliament.
They are hopeful that the Court of Session’s decision will be made before Parliament returns from summer recess in September and want the court to state the law in advance of the Queen being asked to suspend Parliament.
The challenge aims to build on momentum after a European Court of Justice decision which found that Article 50 could be completely revoked.
A group of Scottish politicians had asked the court whether the UK can call off Brexit without the consent of other member states.
The European Court of Justice ruled in December that the UK could unilaterally revoke its notification of intention to withdraw from the EU.
MPs last week voted to block the suspension of Parliament between October 9 and December 18 unless a Northern Ireland executive is formed.
Hywel Williams MP said: “The threats made by Boris Johnson and others to shut down Parliament are something you would expect of a petulant tinpot tyrant, not the leader of a mature democracy.
“Parliament has already emphatically made clear that prorogation to deliver a no-deal is simply unacceptable. It is a shame that we have to seek guarantees in the courts that the incoming Prime Minister wouldn’t seek to circumvent democracy... Working across party lines, we will do everything in our power to stop the next Prime Minister from shutting down democracy to try and deliver a hugely damaging nodeal Brexit.”