Boris Johnson news: PM forced to return early from UN as Corbyn demands election following Supreme Court humiliation
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson is returning the UK to face urgent questions in parliament after the Supreme Court declared his government unlawfully shut it down for five weeks.
The prime minister was forced to cut short his trip to the UN General Assembly in New York to attend the House of Commons on Wednesday.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for Mr Johnson to “consider his position” following the landmark decision, while Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson said he was “not fit” to be PM.
Speaking in New York, the prime minister said his government will “respect” the court verdict and added that “of course parliament will come back”.
Downing Street confirmed that he had spoken to the Queen by phone but refused to say whether he had apologised for advising her to prorogue parliament.
It was also reported that Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House, had described the ruling as a “constitutional coup”.
See below for our coverage of events as they happened
BREAKING: Speaker John Bercow says the Commons will return on Wednesday.
Speaking on College Green, he says: “I have instructed the house authorities … to prepare for the resumption of the business of the House of Commons.”
Bercow says the Commons will sit tomorrow at 11.30am, and he has contacted party leaders – or senior representatives of the parties – about the resumption of parliamentary business.
John Bercow says MPs will be back at 11.30am, but Green MP Caroline Lucas has returned to the opposition benches nice and early.
Here’s John Bercow statement explaining why he is preparing for the resumption – rather than the recall – of parliament.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech will now take place on Tuesday afternoon in light of today’s dramatic events (it had been set to take place tomorrow). What happens to Tom Watson’s speech today? More as we get it.
SNP MP Angus MacNeil thinks now is a good time for his party to make a bold bid for a second independence referendum.
Former PM David Cameron’s director of communications Sir Craig Oliver said the Supreme Court decision was “extraordinary”.
He told Sky News: “When you’ve got Dominic Cummings in the driving seat you’re going to be in for a rough ride. You’re going to be taking a high-risk strategy, and some of those risks are not going to pay off.
“This has spectacularly failed, but I suspect [No 10] thinking is that this is a game that only ends when the British people have actually voted in a general election – and we still don’t know how that’s going to go.”
Despite it being an “extremely embarrassing situation”, Sir Craig said the PM would try to “style it out”. He also predicted we wouldn’t be hearing from Cummings for a while.
Our home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden has the full story on today’s landmark ruling by the Supreme Court.
One of the strongest and perhaps surprising responses to today’s ruling comes from Brexit Party chairman and MEP Richard Tice.
The Brexit Party has been proposing an electoral pact with the Johnson-led Tories, but Tice now thinks the prime minister will have to step down.
Speaking to BBC News, Tice said: “What an extraordinary day. The thing now is to focus on what happens next.
“As soon as Parliament is recalled, Boris Johnson is probably going to have to offer his resignation or there may well be a vote of no confidence.”
Tice continued: “Then there is the question of a general election, and really and truly that should be as soon as possible, probably meaning the first half of November.
“And goodness me, what does it say about the so-called master strategist, Dominic Cummings? I trust he'll be offering his resignation today.”
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson says Boris Johnson “is not fit for office, he must resign”.
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