Challenge to Parliament shutdown wrapping up at Britain’s top court
LONDON — Former British Prime Minister John Major accused current leader Boris Johnson of a “conspicuous” failure to explain why he suspended Parliament for five weeks, as a landmark Brexit case at the Supreme Court came to a head on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the European Union and Britain announced new talks on an elusive divorce deal, even as they squabbled over whether or not the United Kingdom had brought any new ideas to the table.
The United Kingdom’s top court is sitting to decide whether Johnson broke the law by sending lawmakers home just weeks before Britain is due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31.
The government says the suspension is routine and not motivated by Brexit, and argues that judges should not interfere in politics.
Opponents of the government claim Johnson shut Parliament until Oct. 14 to prevent lawmakers scrutinizing his plan to take Britain out of the EU at the end of next month, with or without a divorce deal. They also accuse the prime minister of misleading Queen Elizabeth II, whose formal approval was needed to suspend the legislature.
They are being backed by Major, who was prime minister between 1990 and 1997 — and, like Johnson, is a Conservative.
Major’s lawyer, Edward Garnier, told the court that it was an “inescapable” conclusion that Johnson had shut down the legislature to stop lawmakers blocking his Brexit plans.
A written submission on behalf of Major said Johnson had failed to provide a sworn statement explaining the reasons for suspending Parliament, and argued that “his failure or refusal to do so is conspicuous.”
Major said the inescapable conclusion was that “the decision was in fact substantially motivated by a desire to obstruct Parliament from interfering with the prime minister’s plans.”
The...