UK government found in contempt of Parliament over Brexit legal advice

[Gimme More 35,802]

The British government has been found in contempt of Parliament for the first time ever, after it refused to publish the full legal advice underpinning its Brexit plan.

Theresa May's administration lost the critical vote by 311 votes to 293, a stinging defeat for the Prime Minister at the beginning of a week of votes on issues related to Brexit. The government immediately said it would publish the legal advice, prepared by Attorney General Geoffrey Cox, on Wednesday.

Just hours before the vote, May told the Cabinet that "candid" legal advice given to ministers must remain confidential.

The opposition Labour Party's Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, said the defeat was a "badge of shame" for the government. The decision had "huge constitutional and political significance," he told Britain's Press Association.

The day started badly for the government when a top European Union legal adviser ruled that the UK could unilaterally halt the Brexit process.

In an opinion prepared for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Strasbourg, the advocate general said the UK did not need the approval of the 27 remaining EU member states to halt the two-year countdown triggered invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. The UK government had fought the case, saying it had no intention of stopping the Brexit process.

In the House of Commons later, May's government suffered another defeat when lawmakers approved an amendment which aims to give Parliament greater say if her Brexit deal is rejected by lawmakers next Tuesday. 

After the parliamentary defeats, May opened a five-day Commons debate on her Brexit plans. She urged MPs to support her proposals when they come to vote next Tuesday. "This argument has gone on long enough," May told the House of Commons. "It is corrosive to our politics. And life depends on compromise."

But her plans are widely expected to be rejected, and with only 16 weeks to go before the Article 50 deadline on March 29 -- when Britain officially leaves the EU -- options are running out.

mess 

[monster4life231 4,304]

YAY! 

As a politics student, this is so fun to watch.

[Gimme More 35,802]

1 minute ago, monster4life231 said:

YAY! 

As a politics student, this is so fun to watch.

i'm a law student and i'm just in shock at this whole mess 

[monster4life231 4,304]

2 minutes ago, Gimme More said:

i'm a law student and i'm just in shock at this whole mess 

A constitutional crisis is incoming.

[Petie Estie 5,707]

every time this comes up it's dumber than before. The country BARELY voted for brexit - and that's with lies about what it would mean and questionable outside influence campaigns. People don't want Brexit anymore. All the arguments I see May making for this make no sense. 

[ShockPop 7,747]

3 minutes ago, SEANGT said:

every time this comes up it's dumber than before. The country BARELY voted for brexit - and that's with lies about what it would mean and questionable outside influence campaigns. People don't want Brexit anymore. All the arguments I see May making for this make no sense. 

Who are these "people"?

It's the deal that's atrocious. We still don't want to be governed by unelected un-fire-able nobodies, thanks.

[robboadam 2,554]

 

[melon 3,668]

mess after mess 

the tories are just an utter embarrassment, not saying the other parties are stellar right now either, but party politics right now is just 

I remember 2 1/2 years before voting, I had some questions myself about the EU.  But I thought that leaving would be such a colossal mess under the tories because of the internal divisions, that I didn’t think we could pull it off without a horrendous impact to our economy for a generation.  

Now people are finally realising we could never get a perfect deal for us (no one likes compromise and Brits have a little bit too much self-importance).  

I truly don’t think the majority of people who voted to leave remotely considered how incredibly long it will actually take us to leave, millions of documents over 40 years need to be sifted through, passed as UK statute or through a statutory instrument.  

We will be dealing with this ridiculous vote for the next decade, we will be much poorer, we have dented our national reputation even more.  Sure in 20 years time we might have more trade deals around the world and our economy might reap the benefits, but that will be after 5-10 years of uncertainty, recession and underinvestment...

It’s not worth it, it never was.

[AJM 1,520]

Watching Good Morning Britain and it looks like we are f***ed 

For once I agree with Piers Morgan. Why have someone who was anti brexit leading a pro brexit government???