Report comment

Mr Maloney - 28 September @10.43pm - The European Union Referendum Act 2015 made no provision for the result to be incorporated into law. It was purely advisory. The 2011 proportional representation referendum did have a binding element.

It is not a question of having a better opinion of the courts. An action is proceeding in Northern Ireland concerning the Good Friday Agreement and devolution legislation which suggests that both are incompatible with leaving the EU.

It is likely that the High Court action here will get to the Supreme Court by the end of the year. It is possible that an Act of Parliament will be necessary to invoke Article 50 - hence my suggestion that Mrs May could avoid that route. Prerogative powers are residual and there is much evidence that the provisions of S2 of the European Communities Act 1972 would require further parliamentary intervention to repeal it. UK citizens have been granted EU citizenship rights and those cannot be removed by prerogative.

It is not a question of the courts being 'foolish' to interfere, Mr Cameron may have promised a course of action that the government cannot legally fulfil.