By Ben Kerrigan-
A legal challenge over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament has been rejected in the High Court.
Business woman Gina Miller, has lost her legal challenge to prevent Boris Johnson from suspending parliament over Brexit. Miller’s legal team argued that the move was “an unlawful abuse of power”.
However, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett permitted rejected the legal arguments presented by Miller’s team, bringing it in line with a similar judgement made in Edinburgh, Scotland. Lord Burnett permitted Miller to immediately appeal because of the important points of law at stake.The appeal is expected to be heard at the Supreme Court on 17 September. Ms Miller said she was “very disappointed with the judgment”.
“We feel it is absolutely vital that Parliament should be sitting. We are therefore pleased that the judges have given us permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, which we will be doing, and they feel that our case has the merit to be handed up.”
A similar legal challenge was rejected at Edinburgh’s Court of Session earlier this week. Following an appeal, judges at Scotland’s highest civil court said on Friday a decision would not be made before Wednesday. Today’s judgement puts makes the odds against successful outcome in the Supreme Court higher, but the Supreme Court is independent of the High Court, and higher in the judicial system.
The legal challenge all started after the prime minister announced his plans last week to prorogue Parliament, that is to shut it down for five weeks ahead of a Queen’s Speech on 14 October. Opposing Mps immediately launched a legal challenge to prevent the move, but both challenges have failed in the courts to the pleasure of the Uk prime minister
SCRUTINY
Johnson’s opponent’s argued at the time that Mr Johnson’s aim was to avoid parliamentary scrutiny and to stop them passing legislation that would prevent the UK leaving the European Union without a deal on 31 October. The UK government denied the claim, arguing that the the aim of proroguing Parliament was to allow Boris Johnson to present his legislative plans in the Queen’s Speech and allow enough time for MPs to debate Brexit.
Focus will now be on the Supreme Court to determine the final fate of this very divisive political issue,