Bercow: Commons will sit tomorrow, after ‘explicit’ Supreme Court judgement
Speaker John Bercow has said the House of Commons will return tomorrow morning, following the Supreme Court’s “explicit” judgement today.
Standing on College Green outside parliament, the outgoing speaker said he had “instructed the House authorities to prepare not for recall, because prorogation was unlawful and therefore void, but the resumption of business”
As a result the House of Commons will begin sitting again “tomorrow and does so at 11:30am”, he added.
Bercow said it would not be possible for Prime Ministers’ Questions to take place but “for the avoidance of doubt, there will be full scope for urgent questions, ministerial statements and for applications for emergency debates under standing order number 24”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is currently in New York at the UN General Assembly, has yet to respond to the shock ruling yet, however a statement is expected shortly.
Opposition leaders including Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn have called for him to resign.
Speaking from Brighton, where the party conference is currently taking place, he said: “I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, to consider his position and become the shortest-serving Prime Minister there’s ever been.
“So obey the law, take no deal off the table and have an election to elect a government that respects democracy, that respects the rule of law and brings power back to the people, not usurps it in the way Boris Johnson has done.”
In her ruling, Supreme Court president Lady Hale said: “This was not a normal prorogation in the run up to the Queen’s Speech. It prevented parliament from carrying out normal constitutional role for five weeks… This prolonged suspension of parliamentary democracy took place in quite unusual circumstances.”
Hale noted that the only evidence given to argue why prorogation related to the Queen’s Speech rather than Brexit was “a memorandum” from adviser Nikki da Costa.
“It does not explain why it was necessary to bring parliamentary business to a halt for five weeks,” she added.
“The court is bound to conclude that the decision to ask Her Majesty to prorogue parliament is unlawful.”
She added that meant parliament had “not been prorogued”, meaning all business can be brought back, while “it is for parliament, and in particular the Speaker and Lord Speaker to decide what to do next.”
Main image: Getty