Looming Brexit bill defeat in the House of Lords highlights importance of ‘Dublin Case’

7 March 2017

7 March 2017

Keith Taylor MEP: 'The ability to revoke Article 50 means that no option is off the table, including the option to remain in the EU if MPs, and the people they represent, believe the exit deal is not in Britain’s best interests.'

Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South East, is highlighting the importance of the so-called ‘Dublin Case’ as the Government looks set for another Brexit bill defeat by the House of Lords today on giving Parliament a meaningful vote on the terms of leaving the European Union.

The amendment likely to be passed by the Lords rejects Theresa May’s plan to present MPs with a Hobson’s choice: accept the Government’s exit deal or crash out of the European Union without any deal. Instead, cross-party Lords are demanding MPs be given the ability to reject whatever deal Number 10 strikes with Brussels without the UK having to leave with no deal at all; a ‘meaningful vote’.

The so-called ‘Dublin case‘ seeks legal clarity over the question of whether, once triggered, the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50. Mr Taylor is one of three Green politicians acting as a plaintiff in the case. Other plaintiffs include Green Party England and Wales Co-leader Jonathan Bartley, Green Party Northern Ireland Leader and recently re-elected MLA Steven Agnew and Director of the Good Law Project Jolyon Maugham QC.

Keith said:

“Today’s looming defeat of the government by the House of Lords is entirely sensible and welcome. And it begs the same question that the Dublin Case seeks an answer to: can the UK unilaterally revoke Article 50 once it’s been triggered?”

“Without an answer to the question, it is difficult to see how our sovereign Parliament can be given any hope of a meaningful vote. The ability to revoke Article 50 means that no option is off the table, including the option to remain in the EU if MPs, and the people they represent, believe the exit deal is not in Britain’s best interests.”

“As Greens, we are clear on the need for a ratification referendum at the end of the two-year negotiation process. The EU referendum should have been the start of a democratic process, not the end. The people must have the final say on the deal negotiated on their behalf.”

“If ‘taking back control’ is to mean anything, it should mean we have a right to think again and change our minds when we see what Brexit really means as opposed to what we were told it meant during the referendum.”

 

 

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