Reports: Geoffrey Cox told ministers that any 'outrage' over prorogation would be politically motivated

Andrea Leadsom and Geoffrey Cox in the House of Commons ahead of the historic vote. Photograph: Parliament Live TV. - Credit: Archant

Boris Johnson’s attorney general told ministers prorogation would be legal and that any ‘outrage’ over it would be politically motivated, say reports.

A Scottish court released the redacted minutes of a conference call between cabinet ministers discussing the option of prorogation.

But an unredacted version has been leaked to Sky News which stated that attorney general Geoffrey Cox had said the move would be “lawful and within the constitution”, adding that any objections were “motivated by political considerations”.

It is almost precisely the opposite conclusion unanimously made by the 11 justices in the highest court in the land, who damningly said the prorogation was “unlawful, void and of no effect”.

WATCH: Full text of Lady Hale’s Supreme Court damning statement about Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliamentThe advice reportedly given by Cox in the document may have been the basis on which Boris Johnson misled the Queen during his approach to her to request the prorogation.

The full redacted statement seen by Sky News says: “The attorney general said that his advice on the question of the law is that this was lawful and within the constitution.

“Any accusations of unlawfulness or constitutional outrage were motivated by political considerations. The proposal was compatible with the provisions of the NIEFF 2019.”

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While Johnson has refused so far to resign in the face the verdict, Cox may well be looking nervously at his job.

The previous attorney general Dominic Grieve, who vehemently stood against the prorogation, stood down in the summer in the anticipation that Boris Johnson would not re-appoint him to the role.

Grieve, who would undoubtedly have advised the prime minister very differently on prorogation, was expelled from the party a few weeks later for defying the party whip on the issue.