Brexit legal challenge live: MPs don't actually want to vote on Article 50, government lawyer claims
The appeal against MPs voting on Article 50 is now in its second day
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Your support makes all the difference.Here are the latest updates:
- Theresa May performs U-turn and now will reveal Brexit plans before Article 50 vote
- Government rejected an opportunity to make EU referendum legally binding, lawyer claims
- MPs don't actually want to vote on Article 50, government lawyer claims
- Judges accuse the Government's lawyer of contradicting himself "twice in five minutes"
- Amber Rudd reveals EU citizens living in Britain will need identity cards after Brexit
- EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier says Brexit deal could be reached by October 2018
Please wait a moment for the live blog to load:
The Supreme Court is today hearing the second day of arguments in the Brexit legal challenge.
11 of the most senior judges in the UK are hearing the government's appeal to a High Court ruling that Theresa May must let MPs vote on whether to trigger Article 50.
Yesterday, the court heard from government lawyer James Eadie QC and Attorney General Jeremy Wright. The lawyers argued the Prime Minister has authority to trigger the mechanism and begin EU withdrawal processes.
However, the judges questioned why more details haven't been provided about what will be in the Great Repeal Bill, the legislation through which the government intends to legislate for life outside the EU.
The judges also said serious threats have been made to claimants in the case and warned they must be stopped.
The case is expected to last four days in total, ending on Thursday.
(This is the bit of his written case that Eadie is developing.) http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy6WoRgWIAAnCtI.jpg
Crucial q asked of the government's lawyers now- Was 1972 European Communities Act neutral about whether UK member of European treaties?
The 1972 European Communities Act was the legislation which brought the UK into the EU
Eadie now takes us to De Keyser's Hotel and this section. http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy6Y71gW8AAYDFO.jpg
In football terms:Can government exercise prerogative - still in own half.Can prerogative be used to affect rights - in opposing half.
Eadie shows the SC these passages from De Keyser. http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cy6aPXIWIAAgR98.jpg
Eadie trying to make this be all about de Keyser's - wholly irrelevant IMO. This case is *not* about whether prerogative removed by Parlt
It's about whether the prerogative can be used so as to frustrate the purpose of a statute or remove rights granted by or under statute.
De Keyser case referred to in court is a case from 1920 when a hotel owner sought compensation for the army occupying his hotel during WWI
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