Theresa May will trigger Brexit without Parliament vote

UK Prime Minister Theresa May will not hold a parliamentary vote on Brexit before opening negotiations to formally trigger the country’s exit from the EU, the Telegraph has reported.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith have suggested that Remain-supporting MPs could use a Parliamentary vote to stop Brexit. However, the Telegraph quoted sources as saying that May will invoke Article 50 without a vote in Parliament.

“The Prime Minister has been absolutely clear that the British public have voted and now she will get on with delivering Brexit,” the newspaper quoted a Downing Street source as saying.

May has consulted government lawyers, who have told her that she has the executive power to invoke Article 50 without a vote in Parliament. Her decision will come as a blow to Remain campaigners, who had been hoping to use Parliament to delay or halt Brexit entirely. The majority of the UK’s 480 MPs had campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU and the House of Lords is overwhelmingly in favour of Britain staying in the union, meaning that obtaining formal parliamentary approval for Brexit could take years.

Owen Smith last week laid out his plans to block Article 50 in the House of Commons, insisting that Labour under his leadership will not “give the Tories a blank cheque”.

“We will vote in Parliament to block any attempt to invoke Article 50 until Theresa May commits to a second referendum or a general election on whatever the EU exit deal emerges at the end of the process. I hope Jeremy [Corbyn] will support me in such a move,” he said.

Earlier this year, Tony Blair suggested that the UK should be open to the idea of holding a second referendum.

“If, as we start to see the details emerge of what this new world we are going into looks like, what are the practical effects, then Parliament has got a role. The country should carry on being engaged in this debate, it should carry on expressing its view,” he said.

A group of lawyers has also mounted a legal challenge in an attempt to force May to hold a parliamentary vote. The case, which will be heard in the High Court in October, claims that Article 50 cannot be invoked until the European Communities Act of 1972 is repealed.