PM stands ready to deliver on Brexit, if she gets backing in leadership campaign
Britain faced yet more Brexit woes this week as Conservative MPs attempted to trigger a leadership contest less than four months before Exit Day.
The required 48 letters were sent this week amid a wave of fury that Prime Minister Theresa May postponed the House of Commons vote on her Brexit deal. May said she stood ‘ready to finish the job’.
Meanwhile, calls for a second referendum escalated after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the UK can unilaterally revoke its Art 50 notification of intention to withdraw from the EU. The ruling, in Wightman & Ors v Secretary of State for Exiting the EU (Case C-621/18), backs Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona’s Advisory Opinion last week.
The ECJ rejected the arguments of the Council of Ministers and European Commission that the consent of all the other Member States was required for revocation. It ruled that the UK can choose to stay in the EU at any time while the treaties still apply, whether in the two-year period from official notification of Art 50 or in any extension of this period agreed with the European Council. The UK would need to make a decision to remain, taken in accord with our constitutional requirements and then duly notified to the President of the European Council.
Charles Brasted, partner at Hogan Lovells, said the ruling ‘put beyond doubt that, until the moment the UK signs a withdrawal agreement or leaves the EU with no deal on 29 March 2019, it can still stop Brexit, even in the face of opposition by the rest of the EU.
‘If it did so, the UK could also retain its current terms of membership, including the “rebate” negotiated by Mrs Thatcher, and it would be under no obligation to join the Euro. It is important to note that the ruling only bites if the UK decides to cancel Brexit and the EU27 disagree.’
The judicial review was brought by a cross-party group of politicians and Jolyon Maugham QC, of Devereux Chambers.
Downing Street has responded that the ruling is hypothetical as the UK will not revoke Art 50.
