Scottish Court rules Suspension of Parliament "Illegal"

Boris Johnson’s proroguing of the UK Parliament is unlawful, Scotland’s highest civil court has ruled in a blow for Brexiteers.

A panel of three judges at the Court of Session found in favour of a cross-party group of politicians who were challenging the prime minister's move.

The judges said the PM was attempting to prevent Parliament holding the government to account ahead of Brexit.

The UK government said it will appeal against the ruling to the Supreme Court in London.

The Court of Session decision overturns an earlier ruling from the court, which said last week that Mr Johnson had not broken the law.

It is currently unclear what impact the judgement will have on the current five week suspension of Parliament, a process known as proroguing, which started in the early hours of Tuesday.

But the BBC's assistant political editor, Norman Smith, said it was quite likely that Mr Johnson would recall Parliament before a Supreme Court ruling on the case next week - and perhaps as early as today or tomorrow.

MPs are not scheduled to return to Parliament until 14 October, when there will be a Queen's Speech outlining Mr Johnson's legislative plans. The UK is due to leave the EU on 31 October.

Mr Johnson has previously insisted that it was normal practice for a new government to prorogue Parliament, and that it was "nonsense" to suggest he was attempting to undermine democracy.

But the Court of Session judges said they were unanimous in their belief that Mr Johnson was motivated by the "improper purpose of stymieing Parliament", and that he had therefore effectively misled the Queen in advising her to suspend Parliament.

Everywhere we look, in every corner of the establishment, we find liberals and Europhiles attempting to undermine the democratic wishes of our people. This cannot continue. The centre cannot hold.