UK Parliament will resume on Wednesday morning, says House Speaker Bercow

The Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow has announced that Britain’s parliament will resume proceedings from 11.30am (local time) on Wednesday following the “unambiguous” Supreme Court ruling quashing prorogation.

Addressing reporters in the wake of the unanimous ruling, Bercow said he had instructed House authorities to prepare not for the recall of parliament, because the prorogation was unlawful and void, but for “the resumption of the business of the House of Commons.”

Bercow said he welcomed the court judgment finding prorogation “unlawful because it prevented or frustrated parliament in the discharge of its core duties,” he said. “The citizens of the UK are entitled to expect that parliament… is in a position to scrutinize the executive, to hold ministers to account, and to legislate if it chooses.”

The Lord Speaker, the presiding officer of the House of Lords, has confirmed that the upper house will also return on Wednesday, sitting from 3pm.

Parliament was suspended earlier this month until October 14, but the move faced legal challenges which ultimately ended up in the Supreme Court.

In announcing the court’s ruling on Tuesday morning, the Supreme Court president said that the prorogation was unlawful and it was now over to the leaders of the parliamentary houses to decide how to proceed. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is currently in New York, where he is due to address the UN General Assembly, and has not yet commented on his government’s legal loss.

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