The High Court has ruled that five politicians had failed to meet constitutional requirements of Australian citizenship when they ran for federal parliament.

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Deputy Prime Minister Nationals’ leader Barnaby Joyce, alongside Nationals’ Deputy leader Fiona Nash, the Greens’ senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters and One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts were all ruled ineligible.

Senator Matt Canavan from the National party and Nick Xenophon from NXT were ruled to be eligible to continue in their roles.

The court ruled that the senators should be replaced by the next person on each party’s ticket, while a by-election would be required for Barnaby Joyce’s lower house seat of New England.

The result sees the government lose it’s slender one seat majority in the lower house while Joyce’s seat remains vacant. The government will need to support of at least one member of the cross bench to pass any legislation,

Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek criticised Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for allowing Joyce and Nash to retain their cabinet positions while the court accessed whether or not they’d broken the law.

“We now have a minority government with a hung parliament because Barnaby Joyce broke the law,” Plibersek told reporters in Sydney, saying there was now questions about whether the decisions they made as Ministers would be legally binding.

Greens leader Richard Di Natalie said his members had done the honourable thing by resigning as soon as they became aware of the possibility that they held dual citizenship.

One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts has announced that he will not stand in the Queensland state election. While Senator Nick Xenophon, who was ruled to be eligible by the court, has already announced he’ll be running in the South Australian state election.

OIP Staff