Nigel Dodds: Supreme Court ruling may delay Brexit beyond October 31

Today’s dramatic unanimous ruling by 11 Supreme Court justices means that Parliament will reconvene tomorrow, despite the Labour Party conference continuing in Brighton.

In the wake of the ruling, DUP leader Arlene Foster made clear that although she had endorsed the prime minister’s decision to prorogue Parliament, the court’s decision must be respected.

And DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds acknowledged for the first time that the UK now may not leave the EU on October 31 – a pledge which the prime minister has said will be delivered “do or die”.

Mr Dodds told RTE that what he described as the “shenanigans” in the Commons had weakened the prime minister’s hand in negotiations.

He said that despite the decision “we do still need a deal with the EU to be negotiated”.

“This is just another step on the way and there will be many more twists and turns in the saga,” he said.

“I think it would be very unwise for anyone to predict, never mind the end of October, what’s going to happen next week.”

The North Belfast MP added: “There still needs to be a negotiation with Europe. Some of the language we are hearing out of Brussels about their intransigence is not very encouraging ... I hope we can make progress.”

Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann said: “This is a devastating judgment for the Johnson government and sends a warning to all that nobody should play fast and loose with parliamentary process.

“The Johnson government are not the only ones to engage in that. I warned at the time that this was an abuse of process and the fact that we have reached this point is deeply regrettable and may have political consequences for decades to come.

“The decision of the Supreme Court must be respected so that we can return to some semblance of normality, if that is possible in the current climate.”

Mrs Foster said that her party had “always respected the principle of the separation of powers upon which our constitutional law is founded” and therefor the ruling had to be respected.

Sinn Fein said that the government had suffered a “meltdown” moment with the party’s vice president, Michelle O’Neill, saying that the ruling showed the prime minister had lost control of his own agenda.

She said: “It clearly again demonstrates that this British government has lost control of its own agenda.

“It is a constitutional crisis, we have been saying that for some time and I believe this is another one of those meltdown moments for this British government.”

Mrs O’Neill’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism of Mr Johnson from pro-Remain parties in Northern Ireland.

Alliance leader and MEP Naomi Long called on Mr Johnson to resign. She said: “He has pushed our unwritten constitution to its limits and abused his powers. He has proven himself to be unfit for office and his position is now untenable. He must resign immediately.”

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: “Johnson must be removed from office and Brexit called to a halt. The best way to do that is through an election. Let people have their say on the actions of this Tory/DUP government.”