Court bid to halt UK departure is denied

A FRESH legal challenge over Brexit was yesterday thrown out by the High Court in a ruling hailed as a victory for common sense.

Judges rejected a move that demanded MPs should have a new vote on keeping Britain in the single market.

Campaigners for a soft Brexit hired lawyers to argue that the Government had no mandate to withdraw from the European Economic Area.

They claimed the issue was not on the referendum ballot paper last June and said Parliament must pass a separate law.

The challenge went ahead despite MPs voting overwhelmingly on Wednesday to give Theresa May the power to trigger EU exit clause Article 50.

Another lengthy battle in the courts could have hijacked the Prime Minister’s pledge to begin negotiations to quit the EU before the end of March.

Two High Court judges in London insisted they could rule on a matter when the Government had not even made a decision.

Costly

It took Lord Justice Lloyd Jones, sitting with Mr Justice Lewis, less than three minutes to turn down the application for a costly judicial review.

Lord Justice Lloyd Jones said: “In our judgment the present claims are premature.”

He said the court could not be sure what issues would require adjudication by the courts.

Nigel Farage responded swiftly, describing it on Twitter as “good news”.

Ukip Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten said: “This case was always a waste of time. Thank goodness the High Court has seen that.”

The Brexit challengers who brought the case include Peter Wilding, chairman of the proEurope lobby group British Influence, and Conservative lobbyist Adrian Yalland.

They were joined by a second set of claimants who were granted anonymity because they feared if their identities were revealed they would be subjected to abuse.

The EEA gives countries access to the single market but they must allow free movement of people and implement some EU laws. Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein have this special status.

The Department for Exiting the European Union said: “Once the UK leaves the EU, the EEA agreement will automatically cease to apply to the UK.”