Legal Advice: Prorogation Debate

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Department: Attorney General

Legal Advice: Prorogation

Clive Efford Excerpts
Wednesday 25th September 2019

(4 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. A number of hon. and right hon. Members are standing to contribute who were not standing at the start of the statement. That in itself is perfectly reasonable and I will seek to accommodate them if a thought has occurred to them that they want to convey, or a question that they want to put would otherwise go unasked, but once those who are standing have asked their questions pithily, we must move on to the next urgent question. I call Clive Efford.

Clive Efford Portrait Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)
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The Attorney General has tried to take the high moral ground, but I have to wonder what morals were applied by the Government that led to yesterday’s Supreme Court decision. When did he first become aware that the advice given to Her Majesty the Queen, the Speaker of the House and the House itself about the reasons for Prorogation was not true?

Geoffrey Cox Portrait The Attorney General
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In advocacy terms, that is what we used to call a “When did you stop beating your wife?” question. I do not accept the premise of the question. There is no question that the Supreme Court found in any way that any advice that had been given was consciously or knowingly misleading.