Fury over ‘unelected judges’ who derailed Brexit plans with bombshell court ruling
MPS today cried foul after the High Court ruled the Government does not have power to trigger Article 50 without parliamentary approval and a vote.
They insist it's totally wrong 'unelected judges' are now calling the shots over whether or not the country leaves the EU.
David Davis, the Secretary of State for leaving the EU, said "the people are sovereign" as he defended the Government's decision to appeal against the court's judgement.
"The people are the ones Parliament represents - 17.4m of them, the biggest mandate in history, voted for us to leave the European Union," he said.
"We are going to deliver on that mandate in the best way possible for the British national interest."
His colleague David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, took to Twitter to complain: 'Unelected judges calling the shots. This is precisely why we voted out.
'Power to the People'
Jack Lopresti. Tory MP for Filton & Bradley Stoke, Tweeted: "Unelected judges should not seek to thwart the will of the British people.
"We voted to leave the UK & we will."
Downing Street claim their plans to trigger Article 50 by March 2017 haven’t changed despite the shock defeat.
But Theresa May will now have to go through Parliament before she can kick-start the process of leaving the EU, rather than push it through all by herself.
MPs have suggested that Mrs May could even be forced to call a snap general election next year to ensure she has enough supportive MPs to get her Brexit plan through the House of Commons.
This morning the Lord Chief Justice ruled that the government's arguments are "contrary to fundamental constitutional principles of the sovereignty of parliament".
Following a three-day hearing in October the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas - sitting with the Master of the Rolls, Sir Terence Etherton, and Lord Justice Sales - gave their ruling.
The case was brought by a group calling itself People’s Challenge, which has raised more than £160,000 to fund its legal costs since it was launched in the wake of the referendum.
Leading lawyer Geoffrey Robertson said members of the House of Lords could now push back Brexit until “after the 2020 election”.
But Number 10 were holding firm, and said: "Our plans remain to invoke Article 50 by the end of March."
Dominic Grieve, the former Tory Attorney General, told Sky news that he believes the court ruling "might delay slightly” the triggering of Article 50.
He said the court judgement was “utterly rational” and that the government was in no position to trigger Brexit.
“The issue in front of the High Court was whether you could undo statute law by a proclamation, by the use of the royal prerogative saying ‘we are leaving the EU’, thereby depriving large numbers of people in this country of statutory rights enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom which they currently enjoy,” the Conservative MP told Sky.
“And what the judges said is ‘you can’t do that’. So what’s needed is for the Government, I think, to introduce a piece of primary legislation.”
He said the legislation would not “necessarily” entail a delay to the Government’s timetable.
“You can get primary legislation through Parliament quite quickly. It’s been known to be done in 48 hours but that’s as an emergency. I don’t think we’re talking about that.
“It might delay slightly the triggering of Article 50, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the Government isn’t ready to trigger Article 50 itself at the moment at all because it doesn’t really know at the moment what it’s going to do next.”
Ms Miller said outside the High Court that the government should make the "wise decision of not appealing".
She said: "The result today is about all of us. It's not about me or my team. It's about our United Kingdom and all our futures."
Who are the Brexit judges?
Name: John Thomas
Age: 69
University: Cambridge
John Thomas, also known as the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, is the head of the judiciary and president of the Courts of England and Wales. He investigated Mirror Group Newspapers Plc in the 1990s while the company was owned by Robert Maxell, the former proprietor who misappropriated the company pension fund.
Name: Terence Etherton
Age: 65
University: Cambridge
Terence Etherton, the Master of the Rolls, was called to the bar in 1974 and is the second most senior judge in England and Wales. He is Britain’s first openly gay senior judge and a former Olympic fencer.
Name: Philip Sales
Age: 54
University: Cambridge, Oxford
Lord Justice Philip Sales was called to the bar in 1985 and was recruited as first junior treasury counsel in 1997. He made headlines in 2009 for charging the government 3.3 million pounds for his services as a barrister during a six-year period.