PRESS RELEASE RE BREXIT CHALLENGE
ISSUED 5th December 2020
HARTE COYLE COLLINS, SOLICITORS & ADVOCATES, BELFAST
A border citizen in Northern Ireland has launched a legal challenge against the Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking the High Court in Belfast to adjudicate whether he has acted in bad faith and for improper purpose in relation to Brexit. Papers lodged in the High Court in Belfast on Friday 30th October 2020 by the citizen applicant ask the Court to grant leave for a judicial review challenge.
On Friday the 4th December 2020 the NI Court of Appeal granted an interim anonymity order for a border citizen and referred the challenge to the Senior Judicial Review Judge in the High Court for an urgent hearing. The judicial review challenge, now listed for a leave hearing in Belfast High Court on Wednesday 9th December 2020, is over whether or not the Prime Minister acted improperly and in bad faith in relation to Brexit.
Papers were lodged at the High Court in Belfast at the end of October 2020 with the anonymous challenger seeking a court declaration that Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed the Withdrawal Agreement for improper purposes, constituting an act of bad faith.
On 9th November 2020 the Senior Judicial Review Judge in Belfast, Mr Justice Gerry McAlinden, initially refused the applicant an urgent hearing on this subject.
However, at the Court of Appeal on Friday December 4, 2020, the Lord Chief Justice Declan Morgan, sitting with Lord Justice Treacy, granted an interim anonymity order and directed that the leave hearing be expedited by the judicial review court. On Friday afternoon 4th December 2020 the judicial review judge fixed the leave hearing for Wednesday 9th December 2020.
The Applicant’s solicitor, Patricia Coyle, said today:
“Following some delays, in what is a time-sensitive legal challenge, my client welcomes the ruling yesterday by the Court of Appeal which is a significant step in our client’s attempt to have both a substantive hearing and examination of the evidence in respect of the Prime Minister’s intentions and conduct in relation to the Withdrawal Agreement. The judicial review hearing on the 9th December 2020 is a leave hearing at which the Senior Judicial Review judge will decide whether the challenge against the Prime Minister moves to the next stage of examination of the substantive case.”
Contact – 02890 278227
Patricia Coyle
