Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson flatly denied Thursday that he lied to Britain’s monarch when asking Queen Elizabeth to suspend parliament for five weeks in the run-up to a Brexit deadline — a controversial suspension that’s being challenged in the country’s courts and drawing reluctant judges deep into political waters.
Asked if he had lied to the Queen when advising her to prorogue [suspend] Parliament, and whether he had misled her about his reasons for wanting a suspension, he replied: “Absolutely not.”
He said it was “nonsense” to suggest the prorogation was anything out of the ordinary or a bid to undermine democracy.
His comments came hours after after a three-judge Scottish court ruled that his government's advice to the Queen, which led to the five-week prorogation that started Monday, was “unlawful” because it basically disguised the government’s true reason for wanting a parliamentary shutdown.
The Scottish ruling sent shock waves through Britain’s already Brexit-battered political system and has set the stage for a dramatic legal showdown on Tuesday.
This is when the country’s Supreme Court will have to decide whether the Scottish ruling is correct — or whether instead to uphold two opposed rulings from English and Northern Irish courts, which both held the parliamentary suspension lawful.
Source : VOA