MPs start sitting in Commons after suspension ruled unlawful
Written by News on 24/09/2019
MPs have begun sitting in the House of Commons chamber after the Supreme Court delivered a bombshell ruling parliament’s suspension was unlawful.
Several of them posted pictures perching on the famous green benches that Speaker John Bercow has said will be occupied as usual from 11:30am tomorrow.
Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party, updated the “SILENCED” sign some MPs held up when parliament was suspended earlier this month.
“NOT Silenced!” she wrote on Twitter. “An extraordinary day when parliamentary sovereignty has been upheld.
“The session is resumed and we need to get back to work – holding to account an executive that is lurching ever further out of control.”
Luciana Berger, a recent Liberal Democrats convert, took her seat in the chamber and declared she was “ready and waiting for parliament to resume”.
Labour’s Caroline Harris gave a solemn look to camera with the simple caption: “#DeProrogued”.
Even a Tory MP, Tom Tugendhat, took up the act, declaring minutes after the Supreme Court’s ruling that “we’re sitting”.
Barry Sheerman, a Labour backbencher, also posted: “Just arrived in House of Commons. Speakers office thinks we will sit tomorrow at 11am.”
And Labour’s Diane Johnson posted: “I want to be sitting in the Commons as soon as possible doing my job for my constituents in Hull North representing their interests.”
Her colleague, frontbencher Cat Smith, also posted a picture of her in the Commons library.
“Parliament hasn’t been prorogued so I’m ready to get back to working in the chamber…. except it’s full of tourists and tour guides!!” she said.
Proroguing is the legal term for suspending parliament, which Boris Johnson declared he was doing as the required mechanism for starting a new parliamentary session.
But eleven justices ruled unanimously that Mr Johnson’s advice to ask the Queen to do so was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating parliament.
In New York, speaking on a trip to the UN, Boris Johnson said that it was a ruling that “we shall respect… we will go ahead and of course parliament will come back.”
- Watch an hour-long Supreme Court special programme on at 7pm tonight on Sky News
(c) Sky News 2019: MPs start sitting in Commons after suspension ruled unlawful
