Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller has vowed to take the government to court if the next prime minister tries to shut down parliament in order to push through a no-deal Brexit.
Miller – whose legal team successfully forced Theresa May to give MPs a vote before triggering Article 50 – said the act of ‘proroguing’ parliament would be “beyond a prime minister’s powers”.
Parliamentary sovereignty is the “jewel in the constitutional crown”, the activist told Sky News on Sunday.
“To bypass it, to close the doors of parliament, we feel… that that would be beyond a prime minister’s powers,” Miller added, saying her reassembled legal team had looked at case law on the subject.
“It would be an abuse of his powers to get through or to limit the voice of the representatives we all elect.”
Miller’s comments come in the midst of the Tory leadership contest, in which the frontrunner Boris Johnson has refused to rule out proroguing parliament to ensure the UK leaves the EU “deal or no deal” on October 31.
Miller has written a letter to the former foreign secretary warning him of the potential legal action if he tries to shut down parliament.
Jeremy Hunt – the other contender to replace Theresa May in Number 10 – has said he would not take such a step.
Miller – who supports the UK remaining in the EU – said her decision was not driven by a desire to stop Brexit.
“I have never been a fan of Brexit… but that is completely separate, completely different, from defending the central pillar of our constitution,” she told the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.
But former Tory frontbencher Priti Patel – an ardent Brexiteer who has backed Johnson in the leadership race – said there was an “absolutely relentless” campaign to stop Brexit.
“It’s now down to MPs and a new government to actually take action, not for third parties by going through the courts,” she said on Sunday, arguing that the British public are “sick to death of this”.
“This should not be about the semantics of Parliament or just votes in Parliament or proroguing Parliament. We now have to get behind a new government.”