Government QC Admits that the Referendum Meets the Threshold for Illegality

Brexit
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The Mandated Advisory Referendum. That doesn’t matter anyway
Manchester For Europe·Tuesday, 26 February 2019

On the 21st February 2019, the Court of Appeal sat down to hear the case of [Sue] Wilson and others versus the Prime Minister. Lord Justices Hickinbottom and Haddon-Cave presided over a tortuous series of opening statements before suddenly being presented with a surprise from James Eadie QC, representing Theresa May.
Without challenge, Eadie conceded that the referendum had met the threshold for illegality. Furthermore, had the referendum been binding, which it was not, on both the government and parliament, it would have a statutory, legal mechanism by which it would be annulled.
As it stands, as an advisory referendum, it does not have that force of law. Which was his defence. Meaning that the referendum could have said No, and Parliament could have instructed Theresa May to do it anyway. But the problems do not stop there.
James Eadie QC contended that although the referendum was in effect, illegal, it was not binding and so Theresa May, empowered by Parliament, as permitted by the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017, notified the European Union of the UK’s intent to leave the European Union, as per Article 50(2) of the Treaty on the European Union. Setting in motion all the events and actions that have led up to this day, from one of the shortest pieces of legislation in the UK statute book.

The Prime Minister went ahead with this farce and she must have had legal opinion before this even came to court.
The UK is not a banana republic and should not be treated as such.
Please contact your MP now.

2 Likes
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We are in the theatre of the absurd! I will write to my MP though.

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Thank you.
TM needs to be stopped.

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I think generally we are expected to sit back & watch nothing happen

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What kind of an answer is that?
Write to the new Independent Group, your MP, Dominic Grieve and the 3 Million Group.
I have done all of that.
Don’t forget your local UK newspaper either.

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I posted this the other day - so much for “the will of the people”

Unfortunately - though this angers me quite a bit - Brexit has taken on a life of its own and seems unstoppable.

It is claimed that the mandate given to the Tories at the election usurps the referendum anyway - personally I think that’s bollox but, like it or not the referendum did not empower May to trigger A50 in a legal sense so declaring it illegal does nothing.

Except, perhaps, give some slight comfort to those who thought it was dodgy all along.

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I think it’s the only answer I could give you Jane…
It’s not the best, I know, but I’ve been denied the (overseas) vote on two occasions now, by Worthing Council, which was where I last lived before moving here.
Worthing is a Tory stronghold, & my local MP (from memory) was P. Bottomly, last time I looked, & he appears to be “for” TM’s deal.

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Do you have this in writing?