An excellent start to the week thanks to the European Court of Justice
As previously trailed, today’s key legal ruling is that the UK can revoke the Article 50 and stay in the EU if it wishes:
The European Court of Justice has ruled the UK can cancel Brexit without the permission of the other 27 EU members.
The ECJ judges ruled this could be done without altering the terms of Britain’s membership.
A group of anti-Brexit politicians argued the UK should be able to unilaterally halt Brexit, but they were opposed by the government and EU…
The ability for a member state to change its mind after telling the EU it wanted to leave would last as long as a withdrawal agreement had not been entered into, or for the two-year period after it had notified the bloc it was leaving.
If that two-year period gets extended, then a member state could change its mind during that extra time too. [BBC]
Lib Dem MP Tom Brake adds:
Liberal Democrats have fought tooth and nail to give the people the final say on Brexit. We are now closer than ever before.
The ECJ has made clear that the UK can stop Brexit unilaterally. The Government can, therefore, prevent a chaotic no-deal. For the sake of people’s livelihoods, the Prime Minister must end the uncertainty and rule out a no-deal.
It is clear any Brexit will make people poorer and reduce the UK’s standing in the world. MPs should not only vote down Theresa May’s deal, but back a People’s Vote with the option to remain in the EU.
All the more reason to keep campaigning:
Uplifting to speak to 2,500 people earlier at ExCel Centre, at mass rally for a @peoplesvote_uk. Your campaigning has turned a #FinalSay from a possibility into a probability. @libdems will vote down the deal this week. My speech here: https://t.co/kXBzL62gBt
— Vince Cable (@vincecable) December 9, 2018
it’s a pity that our media are so coy about reporting this.. listening(reading), you could be forgiven for thinking there are only two choices, May’s deal or no deal..
Pleasing, though baffling. It makes you wonder why people are getting so het up about the “legal impossibility” of getting out of the “backstop” unilaterally, since the CJEU has now ruled that the actual words used in an EU treaty are subject to the Humpty Dumpty principle.