UK: Scottish court to rule on bid to stop Johnson's new Brexit deal

*JUMPCUTS AT SOURCE*
W/S Exterior of Einburgh Court of Session
SOT, Jolyon Maugham, Barrister: "The hearing this morning was funded by I think about 4,000 people - maybe more than 4,000 people giving donations of on average about 25 quid or thereabouts. So these actions are funded by a very large number of people who have in essence placed a degree of trust in me to use their money wisely and that's the obligation that - primary obligation I think that - I have to them."
SOT, Jolyon Maugham, Barrister: "We will watch what happens going forward and if the Government's actions are not consistent with the constitution then, you know, we may take further action. There's nothing that I'm presently planning to do but it is - these are unpredictable times."
SOT, Jolyon Maugham, Barrister: "I'm not a specialist in constitutional law. I wasn't one and I'm still not one. I am a QC so I have some understanding of our constitution and I have a deep sense of what points are likely to be attractive to judges and likely not to be attractive to judges. That doesn't come from being a QC. It just comes from having a good understanding of the relationship between law
and politics. We have got a pretty impressive record - so we won the Miller case which I was involved in, we won the Wightman case which I was involved in. We won the Cherry case and we also won in essence we won the Vince case as well. So that's a pretty staggering record in a very difficult field and I am very proud of it."
SOT, Jolyon Maugham, Barrister: "We are not going to ask for an appeal this evening. Indeed if we've lost it's very difficult to appeal at all actually because once Parliament has spoken it is protected by parliamentary privilege. So in a sense you're caught in a bit of a bind. Either you go super fast and early which is difficult or you don't go at all. So that was the dilemma we faced and I have tweeted out a statement."
SOT, Jo Maugham, Barrister: "Ultimately our constitution gives to those with a democratic mandate a choice as to the big decisions and the cause that are to be made are properly made by them. They have a democratic mandate, the judges don't and I certainly don't. I don't want to purport to have some power interfere with the mandate that members of parliament have. I am concerned to ensure that members of parliament act mindful of the law. I am concerned I do want them to understand what the law is when they cast their votes."
SOT, Jo Maugham, Barrister: "Pentland has been very fair in my experience. He decided against us in the Vince case. We got a better decision from the Inner House but I have a lot of respect for the way in which he handled that case so I am not inclined to be impolitic."
W/S Exterior of Einburgh Court of Session
SCRIPT
A legal bid to stop UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson from passing his proposed Brexit agreement will be decided on Friday by a judge at Scotland highest civil court in Edimburgh.
Campaigner Jo Maugham QC hoped the Court of Session would suspend the deal between the EU and the UK as it will result in Northern Ireland becoming part of a separate customs territory to the rest of the country.
"We will watch what happens going forward and if the Government's actions are not consistent with the constitution then, you know, we may take further action," said Maugham, who lodged the petition at the court on Thursday and who believes the new agreement contravenes a current law stipulating it is "unlawful for Her Majesty's Government to enter into arrangements under which Northern Ireland forms part of a separate customs territory to Great Britain."
On Thursday, the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced that a deal on Brexit had been reached with Johnson. Now both the UK and the European Parliament need to vote on the deal for it to go in force.
Whether Johnson has the votes required for the deal to be approved is uncertain, as his government lacks a majority in the House of Commons and with the Democratic Unionist Party, which is in a confidence-and-supply agreement with Johnson's Conservatives, refusing to back the deal.