Legal action on question of whether parliament could unilaterally abandon Brexit gets go ahead
updated on 02 January 2018
Legal action can go ahead to establish whether the United Kingdom can unilaterally stop the process of Brexit if UK voter decide the final deal is not acceptable, the court of session in Edinburgh has said.
As of 22 December, the UK government had 21 days to respond the to the petition brought by a group of seven Scottish MPs, MSPs and MEPs, which includes Conservatives. As The Guardian reports, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said that any reversal of the Brexit process would need the approval of all 27 EU member countries, but the Scottish politicians who have launched the petition say that this has never been tested in court. They want the European Court of Justice to rule on whether the United Kingdom could choose to remain an EU member without the approval of other EU member states.
The case could strengthen parliament’s ability to stop Brexit if it ultimately decides that the exit arrangements are not in the national interest, but the efforts of this small group of politicians are likely to infuriate passionate Brexiteers in constant fear that the “will of the people” (and themselves) could be thwarted by a “metropolitan elite.”
