It will remain one of the enduring mysteries of 2016 as to why Theresa May didn’t directly seek the authority of parliament to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon and start the process of disentangling the UK from the EU. Instead, Mrs May insisted that she could use the arcane Royal Prerogative to invoke the article without need of parliamentary approval. The affair ended in the High Court in the autumn and Mrs May was told the Royal Prerogative could not attain to this matter. Undaunted, the May government referred the matter to the Supreme Court, all 11 justices sitting together in an unprecedented manner.
The case was heard in December and the decision of the court, by an 8 to 3 majority was to uphold the High Court decision and require that Mrs May’s government gets the blessing of parliament before issuing the notice to the EU.
The vast majority of MPs were in favour of remaining in the EU and only UKIP campaigned as a party to leave although MPs and cabinet ministers were free to follow their consciences (!) and campaign on either side of the referendum debate. To everybody’s surprise, Leave won a highly acrimonious referendum by a slim 51.9 to 48.1% margin. However, the result meant that leave was only actively supported by 37% of the electorate, hardly a ringing endorsement.
Only the celtic parties, the Greens (with 1 MP) and the Liberal Democrats have maintained their unified opposition to the UK leaving the EU. Members of the ruling Conservative party with qualms about the decision have largely kept quiet and the main opposition Labour party has yet to determine a unified stance. A large number of Labour constituencies voted to leave, but 70% of party supporters remain against Brexit.
The Labour party has indicated that it won’t obstruct “the will of the people”, but up to a quarter of their MPs have already indicated that they will vote against granting the PM the authority to invoke Article 50. The “official” position is that Labour will seek to shape the Brexit process by amending the authorizing bill in such a way as to guarantee continued parliamentary scrutiny and to constrain the PMs hands, potentially by insisting that continued membership of the Single Market must be a condition – something the PM has already ruled out.
