UK

All eyes on Supreme Court as it delivers Brexit challenge verdict

The UK's highest court will announce its ruling on the Government's Brexit challenge
The UK's highest court will announce its ruling on the Government's Brexit challenge The UK's highest court will announce its ruling on the Government's Brexit challenge

THE UK's highest court is set to give its decision in one of the most important constitutional cases in British legal history.

Eleven justices - a record number to hear an appeal - listened to four days of detailed legal argument in December and will announce their much-awaited ruling on the Government's Brexit challenge today.

The justices stressed at the start of the proceedings last year that their task was simply to rule on an issue of law - whether the prime minister has the right to begin the Brexit process without approval from Parliament.

Supreme Court president Lord Neuberger announced: "This appeal is concerned with legal issues and, as judges, our duty is to consider those issues impartially, and to decide the case according to the law. That is what we shall do."

His remarks came after the High Court judges who originally rejected the Government's case - stressing they were deciding a "pure question of law" - faced fierce criticism from Leave campaigners and an accusation that they were "enemies of the people".

Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, and two other leading judges at the High Court, ruled on November 3 that Prime Minister Theresa May lacked power to use the royal prerogative to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and start the two-year process of negotiating Brexit without the prior authority of Parliament.

The subsequent Supreme Court hearing attracted media attention from around the globe. It was the most televised UK case ever.

The Government's top law officer, Attorney General Jeremy Wright, arguing that the High Court got it "wrong", told the justices that the use of the prerogative in the circumstances would be lawful.

At the heart of the legal battle were rights given to UK citizens by Parliament under the 1972 European Communities Act following the decision to join what is now the EU.

Lord Pannick, for Gina Miller, who won the ruling at the High Court, declared: "Parliament is sovereign. What Parliament created only Parliament can take away.".

Meanwhile, head of the north's Police Federation, Mark Lindsay, said a 'hard Brexit' with physical border posts would make officers easy targets for paramilitaries.

"No matter who is resourcing them, whether Customs and Excise, the Border Agency, there's always going to be some element of security threat around it given the nature of the areas that we will see those put up in," he said.

"That will then become incumbent on the police to provide that protection for those agencies."

He added: "That puts our officers into the firing line. Their patterns become very predictable.

"It makes them a very predictable target for anybody who wants to attack them from a terrorist point of view. That is our main concern."