Legal challenges to block Boris Johnson from suspending U.K. Parliament mount

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to suspend U.K. Parliament for over a month before Brexit is being challenged by three court cases that will be heard over the next month.

Johnson announced this week he will suspend Parliament for more than a month ahead of an Oct. 31 Brexit deadline, enraging opponents and raising the stakes in the country's most serious political crisis in decades.

Former British prime minister John Major has asked to join legal action to try to block Johnson's move.

Major, prime minister from 1990 to 1997, said he would join anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller in pursuing a judicial review of the order to close parliament from mid-September to mid-October.

"In view of the imminence of the prorogation and to avoid duplication of effort, and taking up the Court's time through repetition. I intend to seek the court's permission to intervene in the claim already initiated by Gina Miller, rather than to commence separate proceedings," Major said.

"If granted permission to intervene, I intend to seek to assist the court from the perspective of having served in government as a minister and prime minister," he said in a statement.

Miller's attempt to block Johnson will be heard by a court on Sept. 5.

Miller successfully challenged the government in 2017 over its authority to leave the EU without a vote in Parliament.

A legal bid to force Johnson to reverse his plans to suspend Parliament was also launched in Belfast on Thursday.

The case has been taken up by Raymond McCord, a rights activist who also launched a 2016 challenge to block Britain's exit from the European Union. He said he fears a no-deal Brexit could wreck the Northern Ireland peace process.

The action is part of a wider legal action already launched by McCord against any withdrawal from the EU without a deal.

His legal team has argued in court that a no-deal Brexit would breach the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and the use of prorogation was unconstitutional.

Robert Blackburn, a professor of constitutional law at King's College university in London, said the cases are likely to be combined and the Supreme Court could overturn the decision to suspend Parliament.

"The legal challenges, if the courts accept the applications for judicial review as legitimate for trial, are certain to be combined and go all the way to the Supreme Court," he said. "The Supreme Court could quash and/or declare unlawful" the order.

The government has said its actions are in line with the convention by which a new prime minister briefly suspends Parliament before announcing a new legislative program.

Johnson said on Friday that leaders of the EU can see the "rough shape" of what needs to be done to help Britain and Brussels agree a new Brexit deal.

"We want to do a deal, that is why we are working so hard with our friends and partners" in Europe," he told the BBC.

"Everybody can see the rough shape of what needs to be done. Everyone has now got a fix in their heads about the kind of landing place we need to get to.

"It's going to take work, it's going to take a lot of energy for us to get there, to get rid of this old withdrawal agreement."

Scottish court rejects interim block

A Scottish court on Friday rejected a request to place an interim block on Johnson's decision said it would hear full arguments next week, a lawmaker who brought the case said.

Joanna Cherry, a British lawmaker who brought the action, said the decision was not on the merits of the case and that the court showed a willingness to hear full arguments.

The U.K. government said it was pleased that a Scottish court had decided not to grant an interim injunction against Johnson's decision.

"We are glad the court found against the interdict — there was no good reason to seek one, given the full hearing is due to take place next week, and the process of bringing the session to an end will not start until the week commencing 9 September," a government spokesperson said in a statement.

"As we have set out, the government needs to bring forward a strong domestic legislative agenda, and members of Parliament are not prevented from scrutinizing our withdrawal from the EU."

One month no-deal dress rehearsal

France will test run measures it has prepared for Britain's exit from Europe for a month so that companies are fully prepared ahead of Britain leaving the bloc at the end of October, its minister in charge of customs said on Friday.

Gerald Darmanin will meet Michael Gove, minister in charge of co-ordinating no-deal Brexit planning, in Calais later on Friday to show how France is preparing for the U.K.'s departure.

Businesses have been warning of long lineups for lorries transporting goods between mainland Europe and Britain, and the U.K. government has said most goods from the EU will be allowed into Britain without full customs checks for at least three months if there is a no-deal Brexit.

"For a month we will act as if there is Brexit for a large number of companies. We're going to put in place a sort of general rehearsal so that we are ready at the end of October," Darmanin told RTL radio.

Some 700 extra customs officers have been drafted in and authorities will also introduce online border declarations forcing companies to announce their goods prior to arriving at the border.

"There will be barcodes and numbered plates or merchandise ... and without stopping at the border, your goods will go directly to Britain. There will be no queues of tens and tens of kilometres," Darmanin said.

France is the EU's biggest agricultural producer and exports large amounts of wine, spirits and dairy products to the U.K., while relying on its neighbours' waters to sustain its fishing industry.