Reality Check: Can UK trigger Article 50 without asking Parliament?
5 July 2016
BBC News
The claim: The next prime minister will not be allowed to invoke Article 50 - the mechanism for leaving the European Union - unless an act of Parliament authorises them to do so.
Reality Check verdict: It may turn out that an act of Parliament is needed before Article 50 may be triggered, but it is difficult to see how Parliament could in practice ignore the result of the referendum.
A group of unnamed business people and academics represented by the law firm Mishcon de Reya has
launched a legal challenge to require a future prime minister to get the approval of Parliament before triggering Article 50.
It followed an
article along the same lines from the Constitutional Law Association.
Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is the mechanism by which countries may leave the European Union.
Once the article has been triggered, it sets a two-year time limit for negotiations, which may only be extended if all the member states agree to it.
The lawyers at Mishcon argue that triggering Article 50 would automatically, although not immediately, override the European Communities Act 1972, and that only Parliament can change its own legislation.
But some legal experts argue that the 1972 act would remain part of UK law until it is repealed by Parliament at the end of the process, rather than the beginning.
Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin told the Commons foreign affairs committee on Tuesday that the government had been advised that the prime minister could trigger Article 50 without an Act of Parliament, but that Parliament would have to be involved with the changes to the European Communities Act.
It is important to get it right, because Article 50 says a member state may decide to leave only "in accordance with its own constitutional requirements".
Reality Check: Can UK trigger Article 50 without asking Parliament? - BBC News
Prime minister can launch EU exit procedure without parliament - Letwin
Lawyers have advised the British government that the prime minister does not need parliamentary approval to trigger the procedure to leave the European Union, government minister Oliver Letwin said on Tuesday.
Formal talks on Britain's departure cannot start until it triggers Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, after which it has two years to negotiate the terms of its exit.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who has announced his resignation but is staying in power until his ruling Conservatives choose a new leader, says he will leave it to his successor to notify Brussels that Britain is exiting the EU.
Some MPs who voted to stay in the European Union are hoping that parliament could delay or even block any attempt to trigger those talks. A London law firm, Mishcon de Reya, has launched a legal case to demand the government obtain parliament's approval. But EU leaders have called on Britain to invoke article 50 quickly to reduce uncertainty.
Letwin, put in charge of a special unit to lay out the options for Cameron's eventual successor on the EU, told lawmakers that while he knew there were conflicting opinions over who would or could trigger Article 50, the government had been advised that the decision lay with the prime minister.
"I am advised by the government lawyers that it is a (royal) prerogative power," he told a committee of parliamentarians, adding that he was not a lawyer or "offering any opinion".
He said the issue would be decided in court in response to the Mishcon de Reya case.
Letwin also said the question of parliamentary approval was "entirely academic" as both the lower chamber, the House of Commons, and the upper chamber, the House of Lords, would have to approve repealing the European Communities Act, under which Britain joined the bloc in 1972. He did not make clear when this would take place in the exit process.
Prime minister can launch EU exit procedure without parliament - Letwin | Reuters