This is the dramatic moment Supreme Court president Lady Hale announced Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful.
A panel of 11 justices at the Supreme Court in London gave their decision on Tuesday in a ruling on the legality of the Prime Minister’s advice to the Queen to prorogue Parliament until October 14.
The judges, led by the court’s president Lady Hale, heard appeals over three days arising out of legal challenges in England and Scotland – which produced different outcomes.
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In the court’s written judgment, Baroness Hale and deputy president Lord Reed said: “Let us remind ourselves of the foundations of our constitution.
Here it is #baronesshale pic.twitter.com/VCpjpWVHmE
— Ben de Pear (@bendepear) September 24, 2019
“We live in a representative democracy. The House of Commons exists because the people have elected its members. The Government is not directly elected by the people (unlike the position in some other democracies).
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“The Government exists because it has the confidence of the House of Commons. It has no democratic legitimacy other than that.
“This means that it is accountable to the House of Commons – and indeed to the House of Lords – for its actions, remembering always that the actual task of governing is for the executive and not for Parliament or the courts.
“The first question, therefore, is whether the Prime Minister’s action had the effect of frustrating or preventing the constitutional role of Parliament in holding the Government to account.”
Watch the full verdict in the player above.
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