Prime Minister Theresa May says Britain is "getting on" with plans to exit from the European Union despite a High Court ruling that Parliament must vote on the formal process. File photo by Monika Graff/UPI |
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LONDON, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Britain is "getting on" with plans to exit from the European Union despite a High Court ruling that Parliament must vote on the formal process, Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday.
"I think we all have to remember, and what MPs [ministers of parliament] and peers have to remember, is that we had a vote on 23 June," May said at Heathrow Airport as she left for a trade mission in India. "The British people, the majority of the British people, voted to leave the European Union. The government is now getting on with that."
On Thursday, judges ruled that the Parliament needs to vote on when the government can trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would start formal negotiations with the EU.
May has pledged to invoke the article by the end of March. Then in two years the EU will leave the 28-member organization.
"I want to ensure that we get the best possible deal for the UK as we leave the EU, that's the best possible deal for trading with and operating within the single European market," she said. "But alongside that, the UK will be a confident, outward-looking nation, taking its place on the world stage, looking to build relationships around the globe."
The government says ministers already have sufficient powers -- under the Royal Prerogative -- to bypass a Parliament vote and plans to have the High Court decision overturned.
"The case is that [Mrs May] cannot use something called the Royal Prerogative to do it because we do not live in a tin-pot dictatorship," Gina Miller, the lead claimant in the High Court case against the government, said.
Several newspapers were highly critical of the judges, including the Daily Mail branding them "Enemies of the people."
"The papers have behaved, in my view, disgracefully," Miller said. "The dark clouds are definitely gathering -- and it's every -ism you can think of: sexism, racism, homophobia. Everything is there."
United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage warned of protests on the streets if the voters' decision is rejected.
"If the people of this country think that they're going to be cheated, they're going to be betrayed, then we will see political anger, the likes of which none of us in our lifetimes have ever witnessed," Farage said on BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show.
The Bar Council, the organization representing barristers in England and Wales, called on Justice Secretary Liz Truss to condemn it "as a matter of urgency."
"The judges ought to be respected," Leader of the House of Commons David Lidington said on ITV's Peston on Sunday broadcast." But freedom of the press is important and you know, the press is sometimes offensive."
