DESPERATE Remainer MPs and anti-Brexit lawyers today passed their first legal hurdle after launching a court bid to stop No Deal Brexit.
The group of more than 70 MPs were given a boost when a top judge agreed to give their case a full hearing on September 6.
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They took their case to the Court of Sessions in Edinburgh to stop Boris Johnson from suspending parliament to force through a No-Deal Brexit.
Boris has told EU chiefs Britain will be leaving the bloc “do or die” by October 31.
The group of Remainer MPs and top legal chiefs now face a race against time to win their case by the Brexit deadline.
Today the court granted them the permission to sprint through legal-red tape – despite a top judge saying there was no “compelling need” to do so.
Andrew Webster QC said 11 weeks was enough to fit in all necessary arguments.
But the case was granted an “accelerated timetable” with a substantial hearing to take place under eight weeks from Brexit D-Day on Halloween.
A judgement on whether suspending Parliament would be unlawful will be delivered a week after September 6.
REMAINER CASH
In an insult to Brexit voters across the country the pro-EU group, packed with wealthy lawyers and MPs, were granted a considerable cash sum to help fund their bid.
The court heard it would be “unfair” to allow the group to fund their own challenges and each side was awarded £30k to pay for costs.
Today’s desperate challenge, backed by a number of high profile politicians including Lib Dems boss Jo Swinson and former MP Tory Heidi Allen, is the latest effort by bitter Remainers to block our exit from the EU.
Anti-Brexit tycoon Gina Miller has vowed to launch a separate Supreme Court challenge to prevent BoJo from suspending Parliament .
She has assembled the same legal team that forced Theresa May to grant MPs a vote before triggering Article 50 to leave in 2017.
But No10 remains confidence she has run out of time to pull it off again.
COURT BID
Today’s petition was filed at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, which sits through the summer, in front of Lord Doherty, and was granted permission to be heard by a judge.
The legal bid was granted permission to proceed by the Scottish courts, with anti-Brexit campaigners stressing the urgency of the case due to the Halloween deadline.
A cross-party group of politicians is backing the legal petition, supported by the Good Law Project, which won a victory at the European Court of Justice last year over whether the UK could unilaterally cancel Brexit by revoking Article 50.
Jolyon Maugham QC, director of the Good Law Project, said: “A man with no mandate seeks to cancel Parliament for fear it will stop him inflicting on an unwilling public an outcome they did not vote for and do not want.
“That’s certainly not democracy and I expect our courts to say it’s not the law.”
‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’
One petitioner, Edinburgh South Labour MP Ian Murray, said: “When Boris Johnson unveiled his vacuous slogan ‘taking back control’, voters weren’t told that this could mean shutting down Parliament.
“The Prime Minister’s undemocratic proposal to hold Westminster in contempt simply can’t go unchallenged.
“On behalf of voters across the UK, this cross-party legal challenge aims to prevent him riding roughshod over British democracy.
“A no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for Scotland and the UK, and voters deserve a final say on whether they want to keep the best deal we have and remain in the EU.”
The legal papers state: “Seeking to use the power to prorogue Parliament to avoid further parliamentary participation in the withdrawal of the UK from the EU is both unlawful and unconstitutional.”
Warning that “the exercise of the power of prorogation would have irreversible legal, constitutional and practical implications for the United Kingdom”, the challenge calls for the court to declare that proroguing Parliament before October 31 would be both unconstitutional and unlawful by denying MPs and the Lords the chance to debate and approve the decision.
The PM has expressed an appetite for an withdrawal agreement but refuses to budge over the Northern Irish backstop – the most contentious element of Theresa May’s hated deal.
Anti-Brexit MPs believe this will lead to Britain leaving the bloc with No Deal and are plotting to oust Johnson by a no confidence vote.
But the PM is expected to ignore the poll and fight an election after the Brexit deadline.
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