Parliament has won the right to vote on whether or not to trigger Article 50, the High Court has ruled today.
This will mean that Theresa May cannot trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to begin Brexit negotiations alone. The government will likely appeal this decision, meaning Article 50 is unlikely to be triggered within the March 2017 deadline given by May last month.
BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith has said that Thursday’s court decision is unlikely to change the course of Brexit, as most MPs are likely to back the majority of voters and support leaving the European Union. However, there could be “months and months” of parliamentary battles ahead.
The court have granted the government permission to appeal against the ruling, with the Supreme Court setting aside several days in early December to hear the matter.
Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox was the first Member of Parliament to comment on the ruling, and says the government is “disappointed”.
He added that the “government is determined to respect the result” and will “consider it [the judgement] carefully”.
Investment manager Gina Miller, who brought the Brexit challenge to the courts, said the case was about parliamentary democracy rather than the issue of whether or not to leave the European Union.
Theresa May’s decision to trigger Article 50 by March 2017 was controversial, with many saying it needed to be sanctioned by Parliament before Brexit negotiations – with an unelected Prime Minister – began. However, May denied the necessity to consult Parliament, saying she was led by the will of the people in the referendum result. The UK voted to leave the European Union in June by 51.9 percent majority. The threshold for the vote was 50 percent.