Face of Nation : Boris Johnson, who is flying back early from a UN summit in New York, faces calls to resign from opposition groups. The PM has said he “profoundly disagreed” with Tuesday’s landmark ruling but he would respect it.
There would be no Prime Ministers’ Questions but urgent questions and ministerial statements would be heard, Commons Speaker John Bercow said. Following Tuesday’s unanimous ruling, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn brought forward his party conference speech so he could return to Westminster on Wednesday.
He told delegates in Brighton that Mr Johnson had “acted illegally when he tried to shut down opposition” and “this unelected prime minister should now resign”.
On Tuesday, the court ruled it was impossible to conclude there had been any reason – “let alone a good reason” – to advise the Queen to prorogue Parliament for five weeks in the run-up to the Brexit deadline of 31 October.
Mr Johnson, who was attending the UN General Assembly in New York, spoke to the Queen after the ruling, a senior government official said, although no details of the conversation have been revealed.
The prime minister also chaired a 30-minute phone call with his cabinet. A source told the Leader of the Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said to cabinet ministers on the call that the action by the court had amounted to a “constitutional coup”. “He has completely lost control of the process.”
That’s how one of the prime minister’s cabinet colleagues summed up Boris Johnson’s position as he flies back to face Parliament. Mr Johnson’s likely to end up at the despatch box on Wednesday, where he will have the rulings of the Supreme Court brandished at him.
The opposition parties calling on him to quit. A flurry of urgent demands for the government to answer questions about its plans for Brexit. And all that before the profound embarrassment of having been found to have broken the law. Downing Street at this stage seems to have no intention of doing anything other than toughing this out.
Speaking after the ruling, Mr Johnson insisted the suspension of Parliament had been necessary in order for him to bring forward a Queen’s Speech on 14 October outlining his government’s policies. But critics said he was trying to stop MPs scrutinising his Brexit plans and the suspension was far longer than necessary.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Mr Johnson compared the Brexit impasse to the myth of Prometheus. Referring to how the Titan’s liver was pecked out by an eagle, he said: “And this went on forever. “A bit like the experience of Brexit in the UK, if some of our Parliamentarians had their way.”
Earlier, the prime minister said he “refused to be deterred” from getting on with “an exciting and dynamic domestic agenda” and to do that he would need a Queen’s Speech.
The court ruling does not prevent him from proroguing again in order to hold one, as long as it does not stop Parliament carrying out its duties “without reasonable justification”.
A No 10 source said the Supreme Court had “made a serious mistake in extending its reach to these political matters” and had “made it clear that its reasons [were] connected to the Parliamentary disputes over, and timetable for” Brexit. But Supreme Court president Lady Hale emphasised in the ruling that the case was “not about when and on what terms” the UK left the EU – it was about the decision to suspend Parliament.
Speaking to a crowd of cheering Labour party conference delegates after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Mr Corbyn said: “The government will be held to account for what it has done. Boris Johnson has been found to have misled the country. This unelected prime minister should now resign.”
The calls for Mr Johnson to resign were echoed by Scotland’s First Minister, the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon, Wales’ First Minister, Labour’s Mark Drakeford, and Sinn Fein’s vice-president, Michelle O’Neill. Downing Street has insisted there is no question of him standing aside. And Mr Johnson was backed by US President Donald Trump at a joint press conference at the UN summit.
