Rees-Mogg 'attempting to frustrate Parliament'

LORD REES-MOGG was accused in the High Court yesterday of attempting to 'frustrate' parliamentary legislation incorporating provisions of the Maastricht treaty into UK domestic law.

The attack came as the Government resisted a historic bid by the former editor of the Times to obtain court orders quashing what his lawyers describe as an 'unlawful and unconstitutional' attempt to ratify the treaty without proper consent from Parliament.

Lord Rees-Mogg also argues, in what he has described as the most important constitutional case for 300 years, that the Royal Prerogative is wrongly being used in the ratification process to transfer foreign and security policy to Brussels without Parliament's blessing.

Yesterday, the second day of the hearing, Sydney Kentridge QC, for the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, argued that the cross-bench peer's application was not merely intended to prevent the Crown ratifying, but was aimed