Courtesy of Mish.
Labor leaders seeking to derail Brexit vowed to stop Brexit and took the case to UK courts.
On November 3, a court ruled “The Secretary of State does not have power under the Crown’s prerogative to give notices to Article 50 of the TEU for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union.”
However, prime minister Theresa May is confident of overturning court ruling U. In a two-pronged approach, the prime minister also says, Parliament Must Accept the Referendum Result and Deliver Brexit.
UK Schism
Bloomberg reports May Steadfast on Brexit Timing as U.K. Schism Deepens.
Theresa May insisted Britain’s exit from the European Union won’t be obstructed by judges or lawmakers as the backlash after last week’s constitutional ruling deepened the country’s political schism. May said her government had a strong legal case to make on appeal.
“While others seek to tie our negotiating hands, the government will get on with the job of delivering the decision of the British people,” the prime minister said in the Sunday Telegraph, her first public remarks since the High Court declared that lawmakers should vote on the start of negotiations with the EU. “MPs and peers who regret the referendum result need to accept what the people decided.”
The ruling on Thursday by a High Court panel provoked the Daily Mail to brand its judges as “enemies of the people,” evidence of an increasingly toxic political climate in which no national institution is considered sacred.
Nigel Farage, the former leader of the pro-Brexit U.K. Independence Party, said on the same program that “the temperature of this is very, very high,” and suggested that the national mood would not tolerate any deviation from the goal of a full break with the EU.
“There is a political and wealthy ruling elite who are not prepared to accept the democratic result of referendums,” he said. “If the people in this country think that they’re going to be cheated, they’re going to be betrayed, then we will see political anger the likes of which none of us in our lifetimes have ever witnessed in this country.”
Parliament Revolt
The Guardian reports Article 50 Ruling Leaves Theresa May Facing Potential MP Revolt.
Theresa May is heading for a rebellion over her Brexit strategy after the high court ruled that the UK could not leave the European union without the permission of the British parliament.
Three senior judges ruled on Thursday that the government could not press ahead with triggering article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, the formal process for beginning Brexit, without first consulting MPs and peers in the Commons and Lords.
Downing Street has said they will challenge the judgment and an appeal with the supreme court is expected to be lodged. But David Davis, the Brexit secretary, acknowledged that the ruling as it stood meant the UK’s departure from the bloc would require the consent of both MPs and peers through an act of parliament.
The Guardian understands that a cross-party group of Tory and Labour MPs met this Thursday afternoon to discuss how the ruling could be used to force May to reveal more about her broad negotiating aims.
The unanimous judgment delivered by three of the most senior judges in England and Wales will make it difficult for government lawyers to overturn the ruling in the supreme court and avoid delay.
The judgment ruled: “The most fundamental rule of the UK constitution is that parliament is sovereign and can make and unmake any law it chooses … By making and unmaking treaties the crown [ie the government] creates legal effects on the plane of international law, but in doing so it does not and cannot change domestic law. It cannot without the intervention of parliament confer rights on individuals or deprive individuals of rights.”
Brexit on Track
