A legal challenge to try to prevent Boris Johnson shutting down parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit is to get under way later.<\/p>\n
The aim is to get the Court of Session in Edinburgh to rule that suspending parliament to make the UK leave the EU without a deal is “unlawful and unconstitutional”.<\/p>\n
The move is backed by more than 70 MPs and peers.<\/p>\n
They include Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson and SNP MP Joanna Cherry.<\/p>\n
The initial hearing to determine how the legal challenge will proceed is due to take place before Lord Doherty later.<\/p>\n
A challenge brought by the same group of anti-Brexit politicians last year saw\u00a0the European Court of Justice rule the UK can cancel Brexit<\/a>\u00a0without the permission of the other 27 EU members.<\/p>\n Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project, which is supporting the latest challenge, said: “A man with no mandate seeks to cancel Parliament for fear it will stop him inflicting on an unwilling public an outcome they did not vote for and do not want.<\/p>\n “That’s certainly not democracy and I expect our courts to say it’s not the law.”<\/p>\n The UK is currently due to leave the EU on 31 October, with the prime minister saying Brexit will definitely happen on that day regardless of whether or not a deal has been agreed with the EU.<\/p>\n Most MPs at Westminster are opposed to a no-deal Brexit, and there has been speculation that Mr Johnson could try to get around this by closing parliament in the run-up to 31 October.<\/p>\n This is known as proroguing, and would require the permission of the Queen.<\/p>\n The group of pro-Remain politicians involved in the legal action at Scotland’s highest court argue that shutting down parliament in this manner would be unlawful.<\/p>\n The Commons Speaker John Bercow has said the idea of the parliamentary session ending in order to force through a no-deal Brexit is “simply not going to happen<\/a>” and that that was “so blindingly obvious it almost doesn’t need to be stated”.<\/p>\n One of the petitioners, Edinburgh South Labour MP Ian Murray, said: “When Boris Johnson unveiled his vacuous slogan ‘taking back control’, voters weren’t told that this could mean shutting down Parliament.<\/p>\n “The prime minister’s undemocratic proposal to hold Westminster in contempt simply can’t go unchallenged.”<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Can’t go unchallenged’<\/h2>\n