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Johnson Forced to Cut US Trip After Humiliating Supreme Court Ruling

US Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been forced to cut short his trip to the United States in the wake of a humiliating Supreme Court ruling that his decision to suspend parliament was unlawful.

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Johnson acted unlawfully when he decided to prorogue parliament for five weeks, plunging Britain into a constitutional crisis.

Responding to the decision, Johnson noted that “I don’t think this was the right decision”.

Currently in New York and due to address the United Nations General Assembly, Johnson stated that he strongly disagreed with the court ruling that the prorogation of parliament was unlawful and void.

“I have the utmost respect for our judiciary. I think that the prerogative of prorogation has been used for centuries without this kind of challenge,” he added.

“As the law currently stands, the UK leaves the EU on October 31 come what may,” Johnson told reporters, stating that securing an exit deal with the bloc before that deadline “is not made much easier by this kind of stuff in parliament or in the courts”.

Parliament was prorogued earlier this month until the Queen’s speech in mid-October, just weeks before the UK is due to leave the EU, however legal challenges brought against the move resulted in the Supreme Court quashing the suspension. Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow responded to Tuesday’s court ruling by announcing that the business of parliament would resume on Wednesday morning. 

Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Monday that the ruling shows that the PM had acted wrongly, telling delegates at the party’s conference in Brighton that Johnson should “consider his position”.

According to Reuters, an unnamed Downing Street source claimed that the prime minister will not resign in response to the verdict.

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