Northern Irish judge to consider granting immediate injunction to block Boris Johnson’s plans

Anti-Brexit protesters outside the Houses of Parliament. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

The lord chief justice in Northern Ireland will tomorrow consider granting an immediate injunction to block the suspension of parliament.

Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA. – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images

At a 20-minute hearing on Thursday morning Sir Declan Norman ended his summer holiday to hear Raymond McCord’s case in Belfast, and agreed to give the legal parties a further day to prepare for a substantive hearing.

McCord, whose son Raymond Jnr was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997, was already pursing legal proceedings against the potential proroguing of parliament.

He warned that Boris Johnson could become the prime minister who wrecks the Northern Ireland peace process.

He told the PA news agency: “I don’t want a Brexit, more importantly I don’t want a no-deal Brexit and also I don’t want Parliament suspended.

“I think it is totally against the democratic process and it’s unconstitutional and it’s being done for political purposes – it’s not being done for the good of the people.”

He added: “I believe what Boris Johnson is doing, it’s not a case of if it will affect, I believe it will affect the peace process here.

“Donald Tusk (European Council president) last week was talking about Boris Johnson being known as the ‘no-deal prime minister’. For me he could be the prime minister who wrecks the peace process in Northern Ireland.

“My main concern is first and foremost the peace process, I certainly don’t want to go back to the bad old days. I have grandchildren and I want them to live in a relatively peaceful place and society and have a future.”

He accused the government of failing to outline the implications of a no-deal Brexit in Northern Ireland and challenged the Conservatives’ DUP allies to tell people what they could face after October 31.

McCord urged the region’s politicians to come to court for Friday’s hearing.

“There’s no use doing microphone politics, they should be down in the courts themselves,” he said.

“I would like to see all the parties down, even the DUP.

“Perhaps the DUP can tell us in the corridors how a no-deal Brexit is going to affect the citizens of Northern Ireland and the peace process – or are they saying it won’t affect it?”

Meanwhile a court case in Scotland was pushed forward to be heard by a judge sooner, while Gina Miller was expected to request a judicial review in London.