Description

On 27 or 28 August 2019, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson advised Queen Elizabeth II to prorogue Parliament from a date between 9 and 12 September 2019 until the State Opening of Parliament on 14 October 2019. As a result, Parliament was suspended from 9 September until 24 September, when the prorogation was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. Since Parliament was to be prorogued for five weeks and reconvene just 17 days before the United Kingdom's scheduled departure from the European Union on 31 October 2019, the move was seen by many opposition politicians and political commentators as a controversial and unconstitutional attempt by the prime minister to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of the Government's Brexit plans in the final weeks leading up to Brexit. Johnson and his Government defended the prorogation of Parliament as a routine political process that ordinarily follows the selection of a new prime minister and would allow the Government to refocus on a legislative agenda.