The Prime Minister has been called upon to apologise to the Queen and to resign by East Devon’s Independent parliamentary candidate, Claire Wright.

Boris Johnson suspended - or 'prorogued' - Parliament for five weeks earlier this month.

Supreme Court judges said on Tuesday (September 24) that the move, which stopped MPs carrying out duties in the run-up to Brexit on 31 October, was unlawful.

Speaking to the Herald, Councillor Wright said: "The term 'constitutional crisis' has been used so often in recent months, associated with the actions of the Conservative government that it has ceased to have much impact - until today.

"Amazingly, we have almost come to expect that Boris Johnson's Tory government will offend the practice of fair play, will not observe democratic traditions, and will not even respect the rule of law.

"But the Supreme Court ruling this morning is of a different magnitude.

"In a disastrous decision for the Government and personally for the Prime Minister, eleven judges ruled unanimously, that suspending parliament was 'unlawful, void and of no effect'.

"They said he had not put forward a reason, let alone a good reason, to shut down parliament, and stop it doing its proper job.

"Boris Johnson's actions in seeking to prorogue parliament go way beyond his kicking 21 moderate Tory MPs out of the party, and turning it into an extreme right wing group.

"Johnson has also been found guilty of misleading the Queen. It's a rather squalid state of affairs when our Queen gets dragged into supporting the actions of our unscrupulous prime minister.

"The defiant Boris Johnson must now apologise to the Queen unreservedly, apologise to parliament unreservedly, apologise to the electorate unreservedly, and resign."

Ms Wright has said she is ready to contest a general election.

In 2017 she came second with 35.2 per cent of the vote in East Devon, but Conservative MP Sir Hugo Swire, who won with 48.5 per cent has said he will not stand again.

Speaking during a visit to New York earlier on Tuesday, Boris Johnson said he respected the judiciary and the court.

He added: "I disagree profoundly with what they had to say. I think it was entirely right to go ahead with a plan for a Queen's speech.

"Frankly we need to get on with Brexit.

"Whether they voted to leave or remain, they want to get this thing done by October 31 and that's what we're going to do."

The leader of the Labour opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, accused Boris Johnson of treating democracy with disdain and called on him to quit - but drew back from calling for an immediate general election.

He told activists in Brighton: "The Prime Minister acted illegally when he tried to shut down opposition to his reckless and disastrous plan to crash out of the European Union without a deal.

"But he has failed. He will never shut down our democracy or silence the voices of the people."

He said the Government will be 'held to account for what it has done' when Parliament resumes on Wednesday.

He added: "Boris Johnson has been found to have misled the country. This unelected Prime Minister should now resign.

"That would make him the shortest serving British prime minister in history and rightly so."

But he signalled that he was not about to table a motion of no confidence in Mr Johnson, arguing that an election could only take place once the risk of a no-deal Brexit had been ruled out.