UK Supreme Court’s ‘decisive restoration of parliamentary sovereignty’ welcomed by People’s Challenge
Crowdfunded campaign group ‘the People’s Challenge’ welcomed today’s UK Supreme Court judgment that ‘regal’ prerogative powers could not be used by the government to exit the EU and that only an Act of Parliament would be sufficient. The decision means that the process can be subject to full parliamentary control and oversight. The People’s Challenge interested parties are ex-pats Grahame and Rob Pigney living in France, Paul Cartwright, a Gibraltarian national who runs Brex-IN, Christopher Formaggia who lives in Wales, Tahmid Chowdhury, a London student and Fergal McFerran, president of the NUS-USI based in Belfast. 5000 people supported their case before the UK Supreme Court in the Miller and others litigation via the CrowdJustice platform.
Fergal McFerran said:
“Today’s judgment is testament to the hard work of many thousands of people across the country who have been genuinely concerned by Theresa May’s approach to dealing with the outcome of the EU referendum. I am proud to have played just a small part in holding her and her government to account in ensuring we respect the role of Parliamentary democracy and in securing the proper process we were being denied.”
Fergal’s solicitor, Darragh Mackin of KRW LAW LLP said:
“Today’s judgment rightly upholds the basic constitutional principle that Parliament is the ultimate decision-maker in a situation whereby the state seeks to abrogate citizen’s rights.
As is evident from the hearing before firstly the Divisional Court, and now the Supreme Court, there are many people with very serious and real concerns surrounding the invoking of Article 50. These concerns must now be reflected when Parliament now comes to scrutinise the next step.
It is now up to Parliament to act without fear or favour in ensuring that those concerns are addressed in the next stage of the process. “
- Any queries should be directed to the Fergal’s solicitor, Darragh Mackin, KRW Law, at darragh@kevinrwinters.com or +7976070023.
- KRW LAW LLP acted in Tandem with the London based Human Rights Firm, Bindmans LLP who represent the remaining individuals of the ‘Peoples Challenge’.
- The Peoples’ Challenge submitted that Parliament entrenched fundamental EU citizenship rights over the last 40 years by writing them into the UK statute book and that only Parliament could authorise stripping them away through Article 50 notification. It has yet to do so because the 2016 Referendum was a conventional, advisory one.
- The People’s Challenge group will today open a new CrowdJustice campaign – the Second People’s Challenge. It will fund authoritative legal advice on how Parliament can maximise its control over the Article 50 notification process as part of any authorising Act, including the possibility of a ‘conditional notification’ in a form that would make parliamentary approval of proposed terms of withdrawal meaningful and, if it would be useful to them, sharing this with key MPs and peers and preparation of a guide to the rights at stake during the decision-making on Brexit.