Investing.com - The U.K. Supreme Court will rule on Tuesday whether prime minister Boris Johnson’s move to prorogue parliament was unlawful.
The verdict can be watched live in the link below.
Eleven justices from the U.K.’s highest court will decide upon two separate appeals and determine whether the prime minister suspension of parliament between 10 Sept. - 14 Oct. was legal.
In the case of Miller vs. the Prime Minister, businesswoman Gina Miller is appealing the decision of London’s High Court, which dismissed claims that the suspension of parliament was even a matter for the courts.
Courts in Northern Ireland and England found the case not to be a matter for the judiciary, however the Scotish courts, which apply a different legal system to the rest of the U.K., ruled the prorogation of parliament to be unlawful.
In the case of Cherry vs. Advocate General for Scotland, the government is appealing the ruling made by Scotland’s highest court, which found the suspension of parliament to be unlawful as it stymied debate ahead of the U.K.’s departure from the Europen Union.
Johnson claimed that the suspension of parliament was necessary for the government to set out a new legislative agenda.
Johnson asked the Queen to suspend parliament for almost five weeks from Sept. 10, one week following parliament’s return from its summer recess. The Queen’s speech, which opens a new parliamentary session is scheduled for Oct. 14., a matter of days before the European Council meeting on Oct. 17.
The European Council meeting could be the final opportunity for the 27 member states of the EU to sign off on a Brexit deal.
The court could find that Johnson misled the Queen, who must give royal assent to prorogation. In this instance, the courts could recommend that parliament is recalled.
In keeping with London’s High Court, the justices could dismiss the case as a purely political matter. It could argue that parliament had its own means of holding the PM to account, such as a vote of no confidence vote, that it did not use.
If the Supreme Court rules in favour of the Scottish Court of Session, then parliament could be recalled, meaning that MPs have more time to prevent Johnson’s ‘do or die’ Brexit, which could see the U.K. crashing out of the Europesn Union without a trade deal on the 31 Oct.
The pound was flat ahead of the Supreme Court decision. At 09:25 GMT, GBP/USD was 1.2441.