Chairman of Lawyers for Britain Martin Howe QC addressed a meeting of the Bruges Group at the Conservative Party Conference, Manchester, on Monday 30 September 2019. Also speaking were Sir John Redwood MP, Mark Francois MP and Arlene Foster MLA, Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
See: Martin Howe QC at the Bruges Group, Conservative Party Conference 2019 (Youtube)
He called for the Conservative Manifesto to promise a Restoration of the Constitution Bill to repeal the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, and repair the damage to the UK’s unwritten constitution caused by way in which the Surrender Act (Benn Act) has been rammed through Parliament with the aid of a partisan Speaker.
He agreed with the criticisms of the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment by Prof John Finnis “The unconstitutionality of the Supreme Court’s prorogation judgment” (Policy Exchange), who said that “the Judgment was wholly unjustified by law” and “should be recognised as a historic mistake, not a victory for fundamental principle“. Martin Howe QC called for the Restoration of the Constitution Bill to reverse this judgment and to undo the Blair constitutional changes which have led to this situation, by replacing the present Supreme Court with a new lower key and less activist court of final appeal and restoring the historic role of the Lord Chancellor in relation to the judiciary.