Brexit ruling: the real meaning of people power

Today, a Supreme Court ruling (the highest Court in the country) ruled that Parliament must vote on the "plan" to trigger Article 50 and leave the European Union.

In the past, the Prime Minister said that the Government had the ability to trigger the plan without the permission of Parliament. However, a few challenges have meant that this will not be the case. This means that, if the majority vote against starting the process to leave the EU, it cannot be done.

It can probably be expected that some Labour MPs will vote against the Government plan - such as Jeremy Corbyn - as will all Scottish MPs in the House of Commons, as Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU.

The Supreme Court did, however, say that devolved Parliaments (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) did not need a say, only Westminster.

It can be expected, says so-called Brexit Minister David Davies, that a Bill could be brought in front of Parliament by Thursday, and could go through Parliament in just a fortnight.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said that his party would vote against triggering Article 50 unless there was a promise of a second EU referendum after a final deal is struck. A second referendum looks incredibly unlikely (despite there being many "Regrexit-ers" - people who regret voting Leave), so it's very likely that Liberal Democrats will vote against triggering Article 50.

Warning: Language in this image may offend

Gina Miller, the woman who took the Government to Court over this issue, told the BBC that the EU referendum was "the most divisive issue of a generation" - but that her legal challenge was about process rather than politics. She has received a lot of abuse for her role in challenging the Government's plan - with so many death threats, sexist insults and racism that she had to receive police protection. People were even invited to gang-rape her. Tabloid newspaper The Sun darkening Miller's skin tone on the front page of their paper, as well as titling her "Chief Brexit Wrecker" as well as describing her as a "foreign-born multi-millionaire".

The abuse of the Court's decision was not limited to The Sun. Daily Mail called High Court judges "Enemies of the People" and even singled one judge out for his sexuality...

There is vast criticism of the fact that Government thought they could trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty (the process to leave the EU) without consulting Parliament, and here's why: MPs are representatives of the people There are 650 MPs in the House of Commons, which are all voted for by their constituents (the people who live in each individual area, known as a constituency). These are elected to make decisions on the constituency's behalf in the House of Commons. So to argue against allowing MPs to vote on this decision is supposedly undemocratic. There is the question of whether MPs could possibly go against the will of their constituency to vote for or against triggering Article 50 - for example, if somewhere voted to leave the EU and their MP voted against Article 50, they could risk losing their seat at the next General Election (which is assumed to be 2020 at the moment). This would, obviously, depend on the individual MP and their area - if the people respect the decisions their MP makes more than the decisions they make themselves, they may choose to re-elect them.

Of course, only time will tell what will happen now that the Supreme Court has ruled Parliament must vote on triggering Article 50. You can't be sure that this is the end of it, though...

#politics