On Tuesday, hours ahead of the UK Supreme Court’s historic decision on the legality of Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament, the prime minister declined to rule out the possibility of proroguing parliament again before the current October 31 Brexit deadline.
“I’m saying that parliament will have bags of time to scrutinise the deal that I hope we will be able to do,” Johnson said.
Announcing the court’s verdict on Tuesday, Lady Hale said the prorogation was unlawful. The court ruled that Johnson’s suspension of parliament was therefore “void and of no effect”.
“Parliament has not been prorogued,” Lady Hale announced. She indicated that it would be up to parliament to decide what to do next.
Johnson, who is in New York for a summit at the United Nations, had said previously that he was not nervous about the Supreme Court’s decision.
“It takes a lot to make me nervous these days,” he said.
“All I can tell you is that I have the highest regard for the judiciary in this country, I will look at the ruling with care.”
During the flight to New York, he also dismissed questions about whether he would resign if he lost the Supreme Court case.
“I will wait and see what the justices decide, the Supreme Court decides, because as I’ve said before I believe that the reasons for... wanting a Queen’s speech were very good indeed,” he said.