U.K. SUPREME COURT DECISION COULD DELAY BREXIT.
Exit from EU could be delayed ECONOMY
L ONDON • Britain’s government warned l awmakers not to try to “thwart the will of the people” after the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Theresa May must seek the approval of Parliament before starting the formal process of leaving the European Union.
The 8- 3 decision forces the government to put a bill before Parliament, giving members of the House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords the chance to debate and potentially offer amendments that could soften the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU, known as Brexit.
While the government insisted its timetable of starting the talks by the end of March remained on track, some analysts warned that a defeat i n the House of Lords, where May does not have a majority, could delay the process by a year or more.
“Parliament will rightly scrutinize and debate this legislation,” David Davis, t he government’s Brexit secretary, told the House of Commons after the ruling. “But I trust no one will seek to make it a vehicle for attempts to thwart the will of the people, or frustrate or delay the process of our exit from the European Union.”
While the ruling won’t scuttle Britain’s departure, mandated by voters in a June 23 referendum, it once again highlights the uncertainties in negotiating the country’s future relationship with the bloc of 500 million people, which is central to trade, immigration and security. The pound has fallen about 20 per cent against the U. S. dollar since the vote on concern about slower economic growth and reduced investment.
May’s government fought hard to avoid putting the matter before Parliament, in part because amendments to the legislation could delay her timetable and force her into complicated concessions with her own lawmakers before she even sat across the table before the other 27 members of the EU.
“Unfortunately for businesses and other institutions, Brexit still means uncertainty,” said Phillip Souta, head of U.K. public policy at the law firm Clifford Chance. “Parliament remains divided and the outcome of the negotiations remains unknown.”
Putting the issue before Parliament is not a simple matter. While May holds sway in the House of Commons, the House of Lords has in recent years stalled dozens of pieces of legislation with which they disagreed, i ncluding an attempt by May’s predecessor to impose welfare cuts on the vulnerable. The government backed down after the delay.
“Defeat in the House of Lords would not stop Brexit from happening, but it could delay it until mid- 2020,” Souta said.
The l awsuit was considered the most important constitutional case in a generation because it centred on the question of who ultimately wields power in Britain’s system of government: the prime minister and her cabinet, or Parliament.
May had said she would use centuries- old powers known as Royal prerogative to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty and launch two years of exit talks. The powers — traditionally held by the monarch — permit decisions about treaties and other specific issues to be made without a vote of Parliament.
The prime minister argued that the referendum gave her a mandate to take Britain out of the 28- nation bloc and that discussing the details of her strategy with Parliament would weaken the government’s negotiating position.
Financial entrepreneur Gina Miller sued to force the government to seek parliamentary approval. Leaving the EU, she said, would change the fundamental rights of citizens and this can’t be done without a vote of lawmakers. The Supreme Court agreed.
“The referendum is of great political significance, but the act of Parliament which established it did not say what should happen as a result, so any change in the law to give effect to the referendum must be made in the only way permitted by the U.K. constitution, namely by an act of Parliament,” Supreme Court president David Neuberger said in reading the decision.
“To proceed otherwise would be a breach of settled constitutional principles stretching back many centuries,” he said.
OUTCOME OF THE NEGOTIATIONS REMAINS UNKNOWN.