Prime minister broke law: UK Supreme Court

The United Kingdom's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully when he advised Queen Elizabeth to suspend Parliament just weeks before Brexit and that the legislature had therefore not been prorogued.

"The decision to advise her Majesty to prorogue Parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification," Supreme Court President Brenda Hale said.

The ruling was a unanimous decision by the court's 11 presiding judges.

"Parliament has not been prorogued. This is the unanimous judgment of all 11 justices," Hale said. "It is for Parliament, and in particular the Speaker and the Lord Speaker, to decide what to do next."

Parliament was suspended, or prorogued in the British jargon, from Sept. 10 to Oct. 14. The prorogation was approved by Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's politically neutral head of state, acting on the advice of the prime minister as she is required to do under the country's complex, uncodified constitution.

Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow said he welcomed the decision, and said the chamber would now convene without delay.

"As the embodiment of our parliamentary democracy, the House of Commons must convene without delay. To this end, I will now consult the party leaders as a matter of urgency," Bercow said in a statement released by his office. He followed this up with a statement that Parliament would resume on Wednesday.

Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, will resume sitting as soon as possible, its speaker said.

"It is my expectation that the House of Lords will resume sitting at the earliest opportunity and I am in discussions with the Leader of the House of Lords, the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition and the other party leaders about the process," Lord Speaker Norman Fowler said.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called on Johnson to resign and call a new election.

To huge cheers and chants of "Johnson out!" Corbyn said the British prime minister should become the shortest serving leader ever, and that Labour was ready to form a government.

"I invite Boris Johnson, in the historic words, to 'consider his position,'" Corbyn told delegates at the Labour Party's annual conference in Brighton.

"This is an absolutely stunning judgment by the Supreme Court today. None of us anticipated that we would have a result such as this," said Ian Blackford, the Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader. "We must be back in parliament immediately, I know the speaker is going to be talking with all the party leaders, we want to get back to work and quite frankly on the back of this Boris Johnson must resign."

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson said: "This confirms what we already knew – Boris Johnson isn’t fit to be prime minister. He’s misled queen and country, and unlawfully silenced the people’s representatives. I’m on my way to resume my duties in the Commons and stop Brexit altogether.”

"Today's ruling confirms that we are a nation governed by the rule of law, laws that everyone, even the prime minister, is not above," said activist Gina Miller, one of the people who brought the legal action. "MPs should turn up for work tomorrow and get on with scrutinizing this government."

The European Commission said it would not comment on internal U.K. matters.