STRASBOURG, France – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused by European Union officials Wednesday of failing to negotiate seriously and branded the “father of lies” by a lawyer in the U.K. Supreme Court, as his plan to leave the EU in just over six weeks faced hurdles on both sides of the Channel.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, left middle row, and other Parliament Members vote a resolution for the UK withdrawal from the EU, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 in Strasbourg. Members of the European Parliament discuss the current state of play of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)
In Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament said it would be the fault of Britain, not the bloc, if the U.K. crashed out of the EU without a divorce deal on the scheduled Oct. 31 departure day.
In London, Johnson’s government battled to convince the U.K.’s top court that the prime minister’s decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks with Brexit looming was neither illegal nor improper. The government’s opponents claim Johnson illegally shut down the legislature to prevent lawmakers from scrutinizing his Brexit plans.
Government lawyer James Eadie told 11 Supreme Court justices that the decision to send lawmakers home until Oct. 14 was “inherently and fundamentally political in nature,” and not a matter for the judiciary. He said that if the court intervened it would violate the “fundamental constitutional principle” of the separation of powers.
But a lawyer for lawmakers challenging the shutdown accused the government of being “unworthy of our trust.”
“We’ve got here the mother of parliaments being shut down by the father of lies,” said attorney Aidan O’Neill. He urged the judges to “stand up for truth, stand up for reason, stand up for diversity, stand up for Parliament, stand up for democracy.”
The judges, for their part, wondered why Johnson had refused to provide a sworn statement to the court about his reasons for the suspension.
“Isn’t it odd that nobody has signed a witness statement to say: ‘This is true. These are the true reasons for what was done’?” said one of the judges, Nicholas Wilson.
The developments were the latest in a rocky week for Johnson, who pulled out of a news conference with the prime minister of Luxembourg on Monday because of noisy protesters nearby. On Wednesday he was berated by the father of a sick child over funding cuts to Britain’s health service as he visited a London hospital.
Johnson took power in July with a vow that Britain will leave the EU on Oct. 31 “come what may.” He promised to break a stalemate that saw the Brexit agreement struck between the EU and Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May rejected three times by Britain’s Parliament, prompting May to resign.
Many lawmakers believe a no-deal Brexit would be economically devastating and socially destabilizing, and have put obstacles in Johnson’s path, including legal challenges to the Parliament shutdown.
Last week, Scotland’s highest civil court ruled the move illegal, saying it had the intention of stymieing Parliament. The High Court in London, however, said it was not a matter for the courts.
The Supreme Court is being asked to decide who is right in a three-day hearing that ends Thursday. If it overturns the suspension, lawmakers could be called back to Parliament as early as next week.
Johnson insists he is working hard to get an agreement with the EU that will ensure a smooth departure. EU leaders are skeptical of that claim.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday that the risk of a no-deal Brexit remained “very real” because Britain still had not produced workable new proposals. /gsg