British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down the British Parliament for five weeks in the run-up to Brexit was unlawful, the British Supreme Court ruled yesterday in a humiliating rebuke to him.
The unanimous decision by the court’s 11 presiding judges thrusts Britain’s exit from the EU further into turmoil as it undermines Johnson and gives legislators more scope to oppose his Brexit plans.
“The decision to advise Her Majesty to prorogue Parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification,” British Supreme Court President Brenda Hale said, reading out the historic decision.
“Parliament has not been prorogued. This is the unanimous judgement of all 11 justices,” she added. “It is for Parliament, and in particular the [House of Commons] speaker and the [House of] Lords speaker, to decide what to do next.”
The speaker of parliament’s House of Commons, where Johnson has lost his majority and most lawmakers oppose his promise to leave the EU with or without a deal by Oct. 31, said that the chamber must convene without delay.
“I welcome the Supreme Court’s judgment that the prorogation of Parliament was unlawful,” British House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said. “As the embodiment of our Parliamentary democracy, the House of Commons must convene without delay.”
Some lawmakers, including those thrown out of Johnson’s Conservative Party for rebelling against his Brexit plans, had said that he should resign if he was found to have misled the queen.
“It is impossible for us to conclude, on the evidence which has been put before us, that there was any reason — let alone a good reason — to advise Her Majesty to prorogue Parliament for five weeks,” the judges said in their ruling.
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called on Johnson to call a new election.
“I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, to ‘consider his position,’” Corbyn told delegates at Labour’s annual conference in Brighton.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in