Legal bid may spark second referendum

REMAIN campaigners are to mount a sensational legal challenge in a bid to postpone Brexit.

Brexit Countdown can exclusively reveal that we could now get another say in a second referendum before the end of the year.

The High Court move, to be launched by pressure group Best for Britain tomorrow, will use the tactic which gave activist Gina Miller her landmark victory over Brexit Secretary David Davis last year.

The investment manager successfully argued that Article 50, which set the clock ticking on EU withdrawal, had to be voted on by Parliament.

Mr Davis and PM Theresa May had hoped to slip it through without the approval of MPs.

Now judges will be asked to judicially review whether Mr Davis’s Brexit negotiations are unconstitutional. Legislation brought in by David Cameron in 2011 introduced a “referendum lock” before Britain could return any powers to Brussels.

As Brexit was not even a twinkle in Tory eyes seven years ago, the ex-PM was pacifying Eurosceptics who feared a more federal Europe.

Now they might see the law they so gleefully voted for used against them to delay Brexit.

Brexit means losing our automatic right to membership of EU bodies Mrs May wants to stay in. Brussels will have the final say, not us.

The PM thought she’d got around any ticklish legal issues because her EU Withdrawal Bill would scrap her predecessor’s European Union Act.

But until that is passed we must negotiate a deal with the EU under existing British law.

Best for Britain boss Eloise

Todd said: “The 2011 Act brought in assurances that any significant changes to the UK’s relationship with the EU would be put to a people’s vote.

“This case is about giving people the right to make sure their voice matters on the biggest change in our country’s direction since the Second World War.”

And former Tory Attorney General Dominic Grieve added: “This raises an important constitutional issue.

“Parliament provided for a referendum mechanism in the 2011 Act to ensure the public should be consulted on any significant EU treaty change.”

If judges agree, British voters would be presented with a simple choice.

To go ahead with Brexit at 11pm on March 29 next year as planned. Or not.

TACTICAL VICTORY Gina Miller won case

KEY ISSUE Dominic Grieve