An Indian origin anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller has launched a legal challenge asking the courts to block Boris Johnson’s planned suspension of Parliament for a month before Brexit.
On Wednesday, the Queen fulfilled a constitutional obligation by approving Boris Johnson’s request to suspend Parliament for a month, from a date between September 9 and 12 until his forthcoming Queen’s Speech on October 14, giving Members of Parliament (MPs).
The move gives hardly any time to debate Brexit earlier than the October 31 deadline for the United Kingdom to go away the 28-member financial bloc.
“All right-minded Britons, who believe in the rule of law and the preservation of Britain’s internationally respected and democratic traditions, will share my profound sense of dismay at the cynical and cowardly prorogation of Parliament,” said Miller.
“I urge our courts to urgently hear my application for Judicial Review before 9 September 2019 the earliest date that prorogation of Parliament could come into effect,” she said.
Gina Miller, who in 2017 successfully challenged the government over its authority to leave the European Union without a vote in parliament, had already issued a legal letter of warning to Johnson in the lead up to the prime ministerial leadership contest last month.
“I have received legal correspondence from the Government Legal Department in the last two weeks stating that the whole issue of prorogation is of no more than academic’ interest. It is, sadly, all too clear that prorogation is a desperate reality, not a mere theoretical nicety,” Miller said.
Miller said: “The basis of my approach to the courts is that it cannot be legitimate or a proper use of the prerogative power to prorogue Parliament when the intention and effect inherent in doing so is to frustrate Parliament and fetter it from exercising its sovereign right to fulfill its elective role and enact any law it sees fit.”
Protests to Stop Suspension
The opposition parties and those campaigning against no-deal branded Boris Johnson’s move as a blatant attempt at rail-roading Britain’s exit from the EU by blocking MPs from tabling motions to prevent a damaging Brexit.
Pledging to try to stop the suspension, labor leader Jeremy Corbyn described Johnson’s move as “a smash-and-grab on our democracy” in order to force through no-deal by leaving MPs without adequate time to pass laws in Parliament.
The leader of the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, said: “Johnson is denying people their voice through their representatives in Parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit.”
The announcement of suspending parliament led to impromptu protests in London and more than a million signing an online petition against the decision to suspend the parliament.
An opinion poll launched by YouGov recorded 47 percent of British adults thinking the decision was unacceptable, with 27 percent saying it was acceptable and 27 percent unsure. It is found the suspension was supported by Brexiteers, with 51 percent of people who voted to leave the European Union approving of Johnson’s actions.
