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Government can't enforce Brexit without a parliament vote, their own lawyers say

Legal advice says Article 50 can be invoked without parliamentary approval but MPs would have to vote to repeal the European Communities Act 1972

Wednesday 06 July 2016 07:33 BST

Remain supporters march towards Parliament Square on Saturday, 2 July, 2016 (PA)

Britain cannot leave the European Union without a vote in parliament, Government lawyers have said.

Although the prime minister could trigger the two-year process of negotiating the UK's withdrawal without a formal Act of Parliament, MPs would have to vote to repeal legislation relating to the EU.

Oliver Letwin, the Cabinet minister in charge of leaving the EU, has said the legal advice is that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty can be invoked without parliamentary approval under the royal prerogative, The Guardian reports.

Once triggered, Article 50 will begin the process of Britain leaving the EU.

However, MPs would have to vote to repeal the European Communities Act 1972 through an Act of Parliament.

What is Article 50?

According to The Guardian, leading constitutional lawyers say the French government legal service has told the French government that the UK would be entitled to rescind its notice to withdraw even after it invoked Article 50.

This suggests the UK could reverse its decision to withdraw through a vote in parliament or a second referendum.

A second EU referendum would be possible if it becomes clear public opinion has shifted strongly against Brexit, the former attorney general has said.

Dominic Grieve, a Conservative MP who was the Government’s chief legal advisor until 2014, said the result of the first referendum had to be “treated with respect” but that it was not necessarily set in stone.

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

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1/66 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

More expensive foreign holidays

The first practical effect of a vote to Leave is that the pound will be worth less abroad, meaning foreign holidays will cost us more

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

No immediate change in immigration status

The Prime Minister will have to address other immediate concerns. He is likely to reassure nationals of other EU countries living in the UK that their status is unchanged. That is what the Leave campaign has said, so, even after the Brexit negotiations are complete, those who are already in the UK would be allowed to stay

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Higher inflation

A lower pound means that imports would become more expensive. This is likely to mean the return of inflation – a phenomenon with which many of us are unfamiliar because prices have been stable for so long, rising at no more than about 2 per cent a year. The effect may probably not be particularly noticeable in the first few months. At first price rises would be confined to imported goods – food and clothes being the most obvious – but inflation has a tendency to spread and to gain its own momentum

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Interest rates might rise

The trouble with inflation is that the Bank of England has a legal obligation to keep it as close to 2 per cent a year as possible. If a fall in the pound threatens to push prices up faster than this, the Bank will raise interest rates. This acts against inflation in three ways. First, it makes the pound more attractive, because deposits in pounds will earn higher interest. Second, it reduces demand by putting up the cost of borrowing, and especially by taking larger mortgage payments out of the economy. Third, it makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow to expand output

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

Did somebody say recession?

Mr Carney, the Treasury and a range of international economists have warned about this. Many Leave voters appear not to have believed them, or to think that they are exaggerating small, long-term effects. But there is no doubt that the Leave vote is a negative shock to the economy. This is because it changes expectations about the economy’s future performance. Even though Britain is not actually be leaving the EU for at least two years, companies and investors will start to move money out of Britain, or to scale back plans for expansion, because they are less confident about what would happen after 2018

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6 ways Britain leaving the EU will affect you

And we wouldn’t even get our money back

All this will be happening while the Prime Minister, whoever he or she is, is negotiating the terms of our future access to the EU single market. In the meantime, our trade with the EU would be unaffected, except that companies elsewhere in the EU may be less interested in buying from us or selling to us, expecting tariff barriers to go up in two years’ time. Whoever the Chancellor is, he or she may feel the need to bring in a new Budget

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Mr Letwin has also defended the Government's policy of doing absolutely no contingency planning for Brexit ahead of the referendum.

The Cabinet minister told the Foreign Affairs committee on Tuesday it would not have been possible to do significant planning before the vote took place.

Britain voted to leave the European Union by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, prompting David Cameron to announce his resignation.

The Prime Minister said it would be for his successor - chosen by the Conservative Party - to deal with the specifics of how Britain would leave the bloc.

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