Court told prerogative not a matter of ‘whim’

Supreme Court asked to overturn High Court decision to give Parliament a say on Article 50

The Government’s use of the royal prerogative to trigger the process of taking Britain out of the EU is not being done on a “whim”, the Supreme Court heard.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright said it was the “logical conclusion of a process in which Parliament has been fully and consciously involved”.

The Government’s top law officer said that process was one in which Parliament had “resolved to put a clear and decisive question about our nation’s future to the British people, and in which Parliament expected the Government to act on the answer they gave”.

Mr Wright was presenting argument on behalf of the Government urging the panel of justices to overturn a High Court ruling of November 3, when three judges said Theresa May lacked power to use the royal prerogative to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty without the prior authority of Parliament.

The position of those who had brought the case and others had always been “that they have no interest in derailing Brexit but only in defending Parliament’s role in the process”.

Mr Wright continued: “But if this is all about standing up for Parliament, I say Parliament can stand up for itself.

“When it comes to leaving the European Union, Parliament has had full capacity and multiple opportunities to restrict the executive’s ordinary ability to begin the Article 50 process and it has not chosen to do so.”

Mr Wright submitted that “in the context of this case the imposition of a legislative precondition by the courts which Parliament did not choose to impose itself, cannot be supportive of parliamentary sovereignty but must be positively inconsistent with it”.

He said: “In the delicate balance of our constitutional settlement this court should, we submit, resist the invitation to make such an imposition.”

If the appeal is unsuccessful and any potential further appeal to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg also fails, the Government’s plans for Brexit could be thrown into disarray.

But Mrs May has made it clear she still intends to give an Article 50 notification by the end of next March to start the leave negotiations with 27 other EU countries. The Government argues that the panel of High Court judges erred over Article 50 and its use was legally justified by the June 23 referendum vote in favour of quitting the EU.

The High Court ruling was won by Gina Miller, 51, an investment fund manager and philanthropist who was selected to bring the lead case.

Her case is being supported “concerned citizens” drawn from walks of life.

The Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Attorney General for Northern Ireland are all intervening in the Supreme Court case. A ruling will not be given until the new year. by all

Picture: PA. Gina Miller leaving the Supreme Court.