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Boris Johnson plan to let ministers throw out legal rulings will lead ‘to tyranny’ says Welsh MP

06 Dec 2021 2 minute read
Boris Johnson. Picture by British Embassy Belgrade (CC BY 2.0).

A Welsh MP has said that Boris Johnson’s plan to allow ministers to throw out legal rulings they don’t like will lead to “tyranny”.

Boris Johnson wants to further curtail the power of the courts after legal clashes over the Brexit process, government sources have told the Times.

He has ordered Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, to curtail judges’ powers to rule on the legality of ministerial decisions.

But Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts said that the change would place the Prime Minister “above the law”.

“The law protects the powerless against the self-interest of the powerful,” the Plaid Cymru MP said.

“The Tory govt wants unfettered power. PM Johnson already acts as though above the law. But this isn’t sleaze: this is tyranny in the making.”

The UK Government however has said that the plans would reinforce the constitutional principle that parliament is sovereign over the unelected judiciary.

Johnson’s wish to curtail judicial review arises from two cases brought by the anti-Brexit activist Gina Miller, his allies told the Times.

In 2016 judges ruled that then PM Theresa May had been wrong to trigger Article 50 to leave the EU without a vote in parliament. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that Johnson’s decision to prorogue parliament for five weeks had been unlawful.

David Gauke, a former Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, told the newspaper: “If the government is contemplating getting parliament to retrospectively change the law as it has been interpreted by judges, then that would be an extremely worrying step and a departure from the rule of law and the traditions of this country.”


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JPC-W
JPC-W
2 years ago

This has been going on since The Great Charlatan, (Blair,) took us into an illegle war on the basis of complete pack of lies.

Morris Dean
Morris Dean
2 years ago
Reply to  JPC-W

I’m no Blair fan but this is of a completely different order of magnitude

Erisian
Erisian
2 years ago

It won’t lead to tyranny – it is tyranny. Even an administration fairly elected (ie Not 1st past the post with 29.3% (= 43.6% of a 67.3% turnout) can be allowed to overturn the role of the courts in our system of governance. We do’nt have a written constitution and must rely on the courts to protect us from over-reach by deluded b*st*rds who think they know best and can do no wrong.

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago
Reply to  Erisian

They know that joining the dots is something way beyond most of the media and the entire English electorate so the fact that cabinet ministers already have the power to enact legislation with no recourse to parliament has they hope been forgotten.

If they get away with this then they remove judicial oversight of that legislation and we have the full re-enactment of Hitler’s Enabling Laws of 1933 and a fully effective dictatorship.

Pitchforks, anyone?

William Glyn THOMAS
William Glyn THOMAS
2 years ago

We are now in 1984 and George Orwell’s forecast is emerging.

Ieuan Evans
Ieuan Evans
2 years ago

He’d be better spending his time removing the unelected House of Lords.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
2 years ago

The extremists of the Tory party want to impose their warped Brexit ideology on us all- without leagal scrutiny. Where will it end? Certainly not with brexit. In the UK the law is separate from Parliament, often it has the final say. We in Wales need to leave the UK asap, for this by-passing of the law means the Tories will try and further undermine devolution and there will be nothing to stop them.

Barry Pandy
Barry Pandy
2 years ago

One word: Fascist.

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