Cabinet warning for Brexit judges
BRITAIN: Britain’s Attorney General will warn Supreme Court judges todaynot to defy the ‘‘will of the electorate’’ or ‘‘stray into areas of political judgment’’ during a landmark Brexit legal challenge.
Jeremy Wright is expected to say the judges should ‘‘resist’’ intervening in a matter of significant ‘‘political sensitivity’’ as they decide whether Theresa May, the Prime Minister, has the power to trigger Brexit negotiations without a vote by MPs. He will say that people who voted for Britain to leave the European Union did so on the ‘‘clear understanding’’ that the Government had the power to implement the vote without ‘‘further approval of Parliament in yet further primary legislation’’.
Wright will present the Government’s case to 11 Supreme Court judges as it begins an appeal against the High Court ruling which stated that May must have a parliamentary vote before Article 50 - the formal mechanism which begins the process of the UK leaving the European Union - is triggered.
In written submissions to the court which set out the arguments he will make today, Wright urges the judiciary not to intervene in politics, saying: ‘‘The Court is being invited ... to stray into areas of political judgment rather than legal adjudication. The Court should resist that invitation, particularly where the underlying issue is one of considerable political sensitivity.’’
Today’s case comes amid growing suggestion that EU-supporting politicians will attempt to use the result to force the Government to reveal its Brexit plans or face the prospect of losing a vote on Article 50.
The Liberal Democrats yesterday said that they would would vote to overturn the EU referendum result by voting against legislation to trigger Brexit in Parliament if the Government loses the court case.
"The Court is being invited ... to stray into areas of political judgment rather than legal adjudication. The Court should resist that invitation." Jeremy Wright, Britain's Attorney General
Ministers privately concede that the Government is likely to be defeated and warn that the Supreme Court will create a ‘‘constitutional crisis’’ when it returns its ruling in January.
Writing in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, Lord Howard of Lympne, the former Conservative leader, warned that peers would provoke the biggest ‘‘constitutional crisis’’ for a century if they seek to block Brexit.
He says: ‘‘Of course their lordships do not face the consequences of electoral wrath in the same way as MPs. But that very fact makes it inconceivable that the unelected Upper House would seek to thwart the clearly expressed will of the people.’’
- Telegraph Group