THE key legal brain behind a Scottish court bid to block Boris Johnson's bid to suspend parliament has called the prime minister a "charlatan" who has just mounted a coup.
A group of parliamentarians including Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson initially launched a legal action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh last month.
They are now seeking an interim interdict that would prevent parliament being suspended until the case has a full hearing on September 6.
The court is expected to consider their motion on Thursday or Friday.
READ MORE: Edinburgh is Scottish hotspot as 1250 a minute support anti-proroguing petition
The legal move came in advance of the Queen agreeing to the prime minister's request to suspend Parliament on September 10 - just a week after MPs return to the Commons following the summer recess.
Jo Maugham QC of the Good Law Project who is supporting the legal bid said: "We believe Parliament can be unsuspended - and will be asking the Court of Session to do exactly that either tomorrow or on Friday."
He later described Boris Johnson as a "charlatan" stating that "never before has a Prime Minister suspended parliament in an attempt to seek to thwart the Commons.
"And the purpose of the suspension is key. It asks a question - to which there is no good answer - of what mandate a Prime Minister (let alone one who has never faced the country in a General Election) has to seek to impose his or her will over that of Parliament.
READ MORE: Johnson and Corbyn branded 'irresponsible' for dragging Queen into heart of Brexit row
"In every coup - a word I use to mean the usurpation of power by someone who has no entitlement to wield it - there will be those telling the public, 'don't worry, this is fine and normal'. Well, do worry, because this is a coup.
"The Charlatan has no mandate to make a choice as to the form, if any, that Brexit takes. He has suspended Parliament to try and usurp a choice which properly is its. That is a coup."
Mr Johnson said a Queen's Speech would take place after the suspension, on October 14, to outline his "very exciting agenda" of new legislation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel