A legal challenge in Belfast High Court that argued the Government’s Brexit strategy will damage the Northern Ireland peace process has been dismissed.
Lord Justice Bernard McCloskey delivered his ruling on Thursday morning on three joined cases against Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the UK’s European Union exit.
In his written judgment, the judge said: “I consider the characterisation of the subject matter of these proceedings as inherently and unmistakably political to be beyond plausible dispute.
“Virtually all of the assembled evidence belongs to the world of politics, both national and supra-national.
“Within the world of politics the well-recognised phenomena of claim and counterclaim, assertion and counter-assertion, allegation and denial, blow and counter-blow, alteration and modification of government policy, public statements, unpublished deliberations, posturing, strategy and tactics are the very essence of what is both countenanced and permitted in a democratic society.”
He also excluded a challenge against the suspension of Parliament because the issue formed the “centrepiece” of proceedings in England and Scotland.
The Court of Appeal will hear any appeal on Friday.
Judges have set aside time, and indicated a willingness to sit over the weekend, to fast-track the hearing of any appeal.
That could potentially pave the way for the Northern Ireland challenge to be heard in the Supreme Court alongside Scottish and English cases next Tuesday.
How come the Scottish Court of Session and the leading English judges came to opposite conclusions over whether prorogation is legal? Tony Diver in the Daily Telegraph explains an intriguing difference between Scottish and English public law
MPs who asked a Scottish court to overturn the prorogation of Parliament took on Boris Johnson using a 300 year old law brought in at the time of William of Orange, dubbed the “Scottish Magna Carta”.
A band of 76 MPs, Lords and lawyers won an appeal yesterday in Scotland’s Inner Court of Session in Edinburgh, using a case based partly on the Claim of Right Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in 1689…..
The law enabled the Scots to forfeit James VII ( James 11 of England and Wales and Ireland) as their king and establish their sovereign right to choose a Government.
The use of the Claim of Right Act allowed lawyers to argue that the prorogation was illegal in Scotland because it violated the principle of rule by consent.
The Act is the Scottish equivalent of the English Bill of Rights and has been dubbed the “Scottish Magna Carta” by constitutional experts.
It was used to allow Scotland to remove James VII from office and replace him with William of Orange, establishing the Parliament’s rights against the crown.
Jolyon Maugham QC, who brought the case alongside Opposition MPs and peers, said: “this case is really about the extent to which a judge wants to reach beyond a technocratic analysis to identify and secure the ultimate principles at stake.
“What is left parliamentary democracy if it can be suspended the day after a General Election for substantially its entire term?”
The Supreme Court now has the tricky task of arbitrating between not only divergent judgments but different systems.
Meanwhile, evidence of a softening on the backstop although still just deniable, continues to mount
BORIS Johnson has told Tory rebels he is ready for “spears in my back” from party Brexiteers and the DUP— in a sign he will now try for a compromise Brexit deal.
It is the latest in a series of hints he is ready to soften his key demand that Brussels scraps the Irish backstop.
Despite the suspension of Parliament, it was another frantic day at Westminster yesterday as:
- The PM went to great lengths to heal the Tory turmoil in the wake of the expulsion of the 21 rebels by stressing his One Nation Conservative roots.
- He told several Cabinet ministers that he’s “basically a Brexity Hezza” — a reference to Tory wet Michael Heseltine who battled right wing PM Margaret Thatcher.
- Boris also told a meeting of the Cabinet he was “the most liberal Conservative PM in decades.”
- DUP leader Arlene Foster backed the PM’s more conciliatory approach for a Brexit deal following talks in No10.
- A senior Labour MP claimed as many as 50 of his colleagues are now ready to back a Brexit deal in the Commons next month to avoid yet another delay.
Cabinet ministers led by Michael Gove are drawing up an offer that would return the Tory whip to the 21 rebels if they agree to sign up to a new election manifesto.
But the PM’s Brexit strategy got a boost last night from DUP leader Arlene Foster, who backed the more conciliatory approach he has taken over the last few days.
Speaking following a lengthy meeting at No10, she said she was “encouraged” by his reassurance to Irish PM Leo Varadkar on Monday that he was straining every sinew for a deal.
And, in another sign of movement, Mrs Foster said a “sensible deal” was “the best way forward for everyone.”
During the meeting the PM reassured Mrs Foster and the DUP’s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds he was not considering a Northern Ireland-only backstop, which would put a border down the Irish Sea.
So does Johnson treat the DUP as allies still or “ spears in my back”?
A Tory rebel is quoted; ““Boris is Janus-faced. He has to be to survive.
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London
