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Johnson faces Brexit flak from EU officials, top U.K. court

British PM suspended Parliament for 5 weeks in lead up to Oct. 31 departure

By JILL LAWLESS, SAMUEL PETREQUIN and MARK CARLSON, Associated Press
Published: September 18, 2019, 10:38pm
3 Photos
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, left, speaks whith European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. The risk of Britain leaving the European Union without a divorce deal remains &quot;very real,&quot; European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker declared as EU lawmakers debated the ramifications of a no-deal Brexit.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, left, speaks whith European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. The risk of Britain leaving the European Union without a divorce deal remains "very real," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker declared as EU lawmakers debated the ramifications of a no-deal Brexit. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) Photo Gallery

STRASBOURG, France — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused by European Union officials Wednesday of failing to negotiate seriously and branded the “father of lies” by a lawyer in the U.K. Supreme Court, as his plan to leave the EU in just over six weeks faced hurdles on both sides of the Channel.

In Strasbourg, France, the European Parliament said it would be the fault of Britain, not the bloc, if the U.K. crashed out of the EU without a divorce deal on the scheduled Oct. 31 departure day.

In London, Johnson’s government battled to convince the U.K.’s top court that the prime minister’s decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks with Brexit looming was neither illegal nor improper. The government’s opponents claim Johnson illegally shut down the legislature to prevent lawmakers from scrutinizing his Brexit plans.

Government lawyer James Eadie told 11 Supreme Court justices that the decision to send lawmakers home until Oct. 14 was “inherently and fundamentally political in nature,” and not a matter for the judiciary. He said that if the court intervened, it would violate the “fundamental constitutional principle” of the separation of powers.

But a lawyer for lawmakers challenging the shutdown accused the government of being “unworthy of our trust.”

“We’ve got here the mother of parliaments being shut down by the father of lies,” said attorney Aidan O’Neill. He urged the judges to “stand up for truth, stand up for reason, stand up for diversity, stand up for Parliament, stand up for democracy.”

The judges, for their part, wondered why Johnson had refused to provide a sworn statement to the court about his reasons for the suspension.

“Isn’t it odd that nobody has signed a witness statement to say: ‘This is true. These are the true reasons for what was done’?” said one of the judges, Nicholas Wilson.

The developments were the latest in a rocky week for Johnson, who pulled out of a news conference with the prime minister of Luxembourg on Monday due to noisy protesters nearby.

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