Sat urday 31 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
11Severin Carrell
Scotland editorA Scottish judge has temporarily
rejected calls to block Boris Johnson’s
decision to suspend parliament.
Lord Doherty said yesterday that
he would not rule defi nitively that
the prime minister had the powers
to ask the Queen to prorogue parlia-
ment until a full hearing of the case,
which he brought forward to Tuesday
next week.
He rejected an application from
lawyers acting for 75 anti-Brexit MPs
and peers for an emergency interdict,
or injunction, requiring Johnson to
suspend the prorogation.
In a surprise development, Aidan
O’Neill QC, the lawyer acting for the
MPs and peers, called in court for
Johnson to provide a sworn affi davit
under oath setting out why he needed
to prorogue parliament. He also said
he reserved the right to call Johnson to
give evidence in court at a later date.
Joanna Cherry QC, the Scottish
National party MP leading the legal
challenge, urged the prime ministerSimon Murphy
Hundreds of thousands of demon-
strators are expected to take to the
streets across the country today to
protest against Boris Johnson’s move
to suspend parliament.
Organisers are backing the use of
civil disobedience during a wave of
protests, in which demonstrators will
“resist the parliament shutdown” in
dozens of towns and cities.
The shadow chancellor, John
McDonnell, will be among the
high-profile speakers addressing
demonstrators massing in the capital
outside the gates of Downing Street.
Last night the Labour leader, Jeremy
Corbyn, threw his weight behind the
protests and called on people to hit the
streets. “The public outrage at Boris
Johnson shutting down democracy
has been deafening. People are right
to take to the streets – and I encourage
everyone to join the demonstrations
in London and across the country
tomorrow,” he said.
One Facebook group for the event,
titled “Stop the coup, defend democ-
racy” , called on people to join the
wave of protests nationwide. “Boris
Johnson is trying to shut down our
democracy so that he can deliver on
his Brexit agenda. We can’t just rely
on the courts or parliamentary pro-
cess to save the day. We all have a duty
to stand up and be counted,” the Face-
book event page read.
The protests, in places including
Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool,
Newcastle, Bristol, Glasgow and
Swansea, are among more than 80
demonstrations due to take place over
the next week.
There has been widespread fury
over the prime minister’s decision to
prorogue parliament for fi ve weeksbefore Britain’s departure from the
EU, with critics accusing Johnson of
trying to circumvent parliamentary
democracy by stopping MPs blocking
a no-deal Brexit.
The protests are being organ-
ised by a series of groups including
Momentum, the grassroots campaign
organisation set up to support Corbyn.
They are also being backed by the
Guardian columnist Owen Jones.
Laura Parker , Momentum’s national
coordinator, pledged to “shut down
the streets”. She added: “We have a
barely elected millionaire prime min-
ister who is happy to exploit a loophole
in our flawed democracy to force
through a Trump-fi rst, no-deal Brexit.
He is part of the same tiny, privileged
elite which has been hoarding power
at the top and eroding our democracy. ”
Izzy Warren, of the UK Student
Climate Network – which is also back-
ing the protests – said: “We need a well
functioning parliament and strong
democratic structures to successfully
prevent irreversible climate break-
down. Shutting down parliament to
force through political agendas is the
antithesis to what is needed .”Jessica Elgot
Chief political correspondentSir John Major has said he will seek
the high court’s permission to join
a legal fi ght to stop the government
suspending parliament before the
Brexit deadline, in an unprecedented
legal battle that could pit a former
Conservative prime minister against
the incumbent.
The Labour deputy leader, Tom
Watson, and the Liberal Democrats
leader, Jo Swinson, also said they were
seeking to join the case brought by the
anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller,
which aims to prevent Boris Johnson
from proroguing parliament from next
week until mid-October.
“I promised that, if the prime min-
ister prorogued parliament in order
to prevent members from opposing
his Brexit plans, I would seek judicial
review of his action,” Major said.
“In view of the imminence of the
prorogation – and to avoid duplication
of eff ort, and taking up the court’s time
through repetition – I intend to seek
the court’s permission to intervene
in the claim already initiated by Gina
Miller, rather than to commence sep-
arate proceedings.”
Major is set to be represented by
the QC and former minister Edward
Garnier , who was the solicitor generalto provide a statement. “Tell the court
the truth in sworn testimony,” Cherry
said outside court. “[If] he believes
that he has a good case for proroga-
tion, he should have the guts to swear
an affi davit.”
Doherty said he saw no urgent need
for a temporary interdict ordering
Johnson to drop prorogation at this
stage, but he agreed that the full case
needed to be heard urgently.
“I’m not satisfi ed that it has been
demonstrated that there’s a need for
an interim suspension or an interim
interdict to be granted at this stage,”
he said. “I’m going to move the sub-
stantive hearing forward to Tuesday.
Weighing consideration in the balance,
it’s in the interest of justice and in the
public interest that it proceeds sooner
rather than later.”
O’Neill had told the judge: “There’s
an urgency to this. Any delay is poten-
tially fundamentally prejudicial, not
simply to the interests of the petition-
ers but to the country as a whole.”
A government spokeswoman said:
“ We are glad the court found against
the interdict. There was no good rea-
son to seek one.”
The Labour MP Ian Murray, who is
backing the legal action, said: “This
verdict means a full hearing has been
fast-tracked to next week, which is
now the most important week in mod-
ern British history.
“It is disappointing that we have
to go to the courts to protect Brit-
ish democracy, but Boris Johnson’s
attempt to silence the people’s repre-
sentatives cannot go unchallenged.”under David Cameron. The former
prime minister told BBC Radio 4’s
Today programme that he felt strongly
about parliamentary tradition, hav-
ing served in the Commons for two
decades.
“I’m not going to stand by and see
them disregarded in this fashion,”
he said. “It is utterly, utterly and
completely the wrong way to proceed.”
Watson said he would join Miller’s
action and be represented by Mischon
de Reya and the QC David Pannick,
who are also Miller’s representatives.
“I attend to assist the court from the
perspective of an active legislator,”
he said.
Swinson said the Lib Dems “are
doing all we can, both in the courts
and in parliament, to prevent both
the shutdown of our democracy and
a no-deal Brexit ”.
The government also faces parallel
legal actions by anti-Brexit campaign-
ers in Edinburgh and Belfast.
A Scottish judge temporarily
rejected calls for an eff ective injunc-
tion to stop prorogation at a hearing
yesterday, after it was claimed during
an emergency court hearing on Thurs-
day that Johnson was acting illegally
and in breach of the constitution.
A full hearing of the case has been
fast-tracked to next week.Scotland
Judge refuses
to block PM’s
plan – for now
Protests
Anger grows
at suspension
of parliament
Legal fi ght
John Major
backs high
court action
▲ John Major said suspending
parliament was ‘utterly wrong’▼ People demonstrate in Parliament
Square, London, yesterday against
Brexit and parliament’s suspension
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