Brexit legal challenge live: MPs don't actually want to vote on Article 50, government lawyer claims
The appeal against MPs voting on Article 50 is now in its second day
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Your support makes all the difference.Here are the latest updates:
- Theresa May performs U-turn and now will reveal Brexit plans before Article 50 vote
- Government rejected an opportunity to make EU referendum legally binding, lawyer claims
- MPs don't actually want to vote on Article 50, government lawyer claims
- Judges accuse the Government's lawyer of contradicting himself "twice in five minutes"
- Amber Rudd reveals EU citizens living in Britain will need identity cards after Brexit
- EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier says Brexit deal could be reached by October 2018
Please wait a moment for the live blog to load:
The Supreme Court is today hearing the second day of arguments in the Brexit legal challenge.
11 of the most senior judges in the UK are hearing the government's appeal to a High Court ruling that Theresa May must let MPs vote on whether to trigger Article 50.
Yesterday, the court heard from government lawyer James Eadie QC and Attorney General Jeremy Wright. The lawyers argued the Prime Minister has authority to trigger the mechanism and begin EU withdrawal processes.
However, the judges questioned why more details haven't been provided about what will be in the Great Repeal Bill, the legislation through which the government intends to legislate for life outside the EU.
The judges also said serious threats have been made to claimants in the case and warned they must be stopped.
The case is expected to last four days in total, ending on Thursday.
Judge is now citing one of Eadies' case examples from yesterday, saying he read it overnight and doesn't think it's comparable to this case
Eadie says he accepts lots of his examples aren't quite like the Brexit challenge, he's using them to illustrate certain elements- not all
Judge- are we saying the referendum may as well have never happened because the question will have to go to parliament any way?
Judge says that has major political consequences. Eadie says we're here to look at the legal consequences, not the political ones
Eadie- Great Repeal Bill will have "great complexities", adding dryly that it "will give us years of entertainment" figuring it out
Eadie says there is "eternal optimism" about the Great Repeal Bill
(Which sounds exactly like something a politician might say, while having little legal weight) ...
... (- again contradicting his earlier call for law not politics)
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