Section:GDN 1N PaGe:12 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 5/9/2019 20:45 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^12) National
Politics
Confi dential prorogation
memos revealed in court
Owen Bowcott
Severin Carrell
The government has been forced to
reveal confi dential Downing Street
memos about the prorogation of par-
liament as it resists legal challenges
in Edinburgh and London to Boris
Johnson’s five-week shutdown of
parliament.
The documents, fi rst mentioned in
the case at the Scottish court of ses-
sion , detail discussions between the
prime minister and his cabinet over
the decision to ask the Queen to pro-
rogue parliament. They featured
prominently in both the London and
Scottish hearings.
One hand written note from John-
son declares: “The whole September
session is a rigmarole introduced
[missing words] to show the public
that MPs were earning their crust. So
I don’t see anything especially shock-
ing about this prorogation ... It is over
the conference season so that the sit-
ting days lost are actually very few.”
to the Queen to prorogue the session
showed he regarded parliament as an
“irrelevance”.
Prorogation has never lasted longer
than three weeks in the past 40 years
and in most cases it was only a week
or less, Lord Pannick said.
“The prime minister’s decision is an
unlawful abuse of power,” he alleged.
“It breaches the legal principle of par-
liamentary sovereignty because the
eff ect of prorogation is to remove the
ability of parliament to enact such leg-
islation as it sees fi t. Prorogation also
prevents parliament from performing
its other scrutiny functions.”
The prime minister was entitled
to decide to end a session of parlia-
ment, Pannick said, but added: “We
say that what the prime minister is not
entitled to do is to close down parlia-
ment for fi ve weeks at such a critical
period without justifi cation and when
a fi ve-week prorogation is simply not
required for the purposes of a Queen’s
speech.”
In written submissions, Sir James
Eadie QC, representing the prime min-
ister, argued that prorogation was not
a matter for the courts to decide on.
“There are no judicial or manageable
standards by reference to which the
courts could assess the lawfulness of
ministerial advice to prorogue parlia-
ment ,” Eadie said.
“The exercise of this prerogative
power is intrinsically one of high pol-
icy and politics, not law.”
The full texts, minus some redac-
tions, were released yesterday evening
in Edinburgh even though the paper-
work was prepared for the hearing in
London.
Notes from a cabinet meeting on
28 August state: “The terrain between
now and October would be rocky.
Although there had been longer peri-
ods of prorogation in the past, they
were exceptional. Parliament would
not normally be prorogued for a longer
period than one to two weeks. It should
be explained why in this case the
period was signifi cantly longer. The
government would be attacked for this
decision but it would be manageable.”
The high court in London is hoping
to give judgment this morning after
hearing evidence that Johnson’s deci-
sion to shut down parliament at a time
of intense political upheaval was an
“unlawful abuse of power”.
Whichever way the court’s decision
goes, a series of similar legal challenges
from Belfast, Edinburgh and London
are expected to be joined together at
the supreme court on 17 September so
‘The
government
would be
attacked for
this decision,
but it
would be
manageable’
Cabinet notes
28 August
The legal
campaigner and
businesswoman
Gina Miller,
centre, with her
members of her
team yesterday
at the high court
in London
PHOTOGRAPH: PETER
MACDIARMID/LNP
that Britain’s most senior judges can
resolve whether or not prorogation can
be overturned.
At the high court yesterday, three
of the most senior judges in England
and Wales heard arguments about the
powers used to prorogue or suspend
parliament at the end of a session.
David Pannick QC , who represents
the legal campaigner and business-
woman Gina Miller, is challenging
Johnson’s announcement that parlia-
ment should be suspended from next
week until 14 October.
He said the prime minister’s advice
▲ One memo from Johnson declares
the September session ‘a rigmarole’
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