Brexit legal challenge: Men talk for 99.3% of court challenge so far

During 4 and a half hours of legal proceedings, women addressed the court for a total of 1 minute and 21 seconds

(PA wire)

Anyone watching the ongoing Supreme Court appeal about triggering Article 50 could hardly fail to notice one thing- contributions to the case have almost entirely come from men.

Women spoke for just 1 minute and 21 seconds during 4 and a half hours of legal proceedings during the first day of the Supreme Court Brexit case.

By comparison, men spoke for 4 hours, 28 minutes and 39 seconds. This amounts to men talking for 99.3 per cent of proceedings.

The Supreme Court is considering whether MPs will be entitled to vote on whether to trigger Article 50, in what is widely considered to be one of the most important constitutional legal cases this decade.

Of 11 Supreme Court judges hearing the case, just one is female; Lady Brenda Hale. The Government is also only represented by male legal representatives in the case; Jeremy Wright QC, James Eadie QC, Lord Keen QC and John Larkin QC.

All but one of the lawyers representing appellants and interested parties are also male. The exception is Helen Mountfield QC, who represent the crowdfunded Peoples’ Challenge in the case against the Government and is due to address the court later this week.

Despite recent attempts within the legal profession to increase equality of opportunity and diversity among top judges, the overwhelming majority remain white, privately educated men who have graduated from Oxford or Cambridge. In addition to 91 per cent of Supreme Court judges being male, all are white, 82 per cent were privately educated and 82 per cent have degrees from Oxford or Cambridge universities.

Follow our correspondent Siobhan Fenton's live coverage of the Brexit case from inside the Supreme Court on our live blog