It’s not too late for Britain to pull out of Brexit, court rules

The UK can unilaterally cancel Brexit, the European Court of Justice said Monday. Hours after the ruling, British Prime Minister Theresa May reportedly delayed a crucial parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday on the hugely unpopular Brexit deal he brokered with the EU last month.

Both the ruling and the delay will buoy hopes among “Remainers” that the withdrawal process can be stopped — and increase the likelihood May will soon be out of a job.

The ECJ’s ruling in the case — which was brought by a group of anti-Brexit Scottish politicians — will boost calls for a second referendum in the UK from those who want to remain part of the European Union.

The court found that any EU member state could revoke Article 50 — the mechanism that triggers the two-year-long process of leaving the EU — without needing approval from every other member state.

“When a member state has notified the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, as the UK has done, the Member State is free to revoke unilaterally that notification,” the court said.

Lawyers for both the European Commission and the British government had argued that the process couldn’t be reversed without approval from other EU member states.

The ruling comes just a day before MPs were due to vote on May’s Brexit deal — one which the PM was widely expected to lose heavily. If only seven of her Conservative party’s MPs vote against her proposals, the deal would have failed. According to a BBC count, 81 of her MP’s objected to the deal.

May is scheduled to make a statement to the House of Commons Monday afternoon on the delayed vote.

Advocates for a second referendum — giving the public a vote on whether to accept some form of May’s Brexit deal, or whether to scrap Brexit altogether — say their cause has received a huge boost by the court’s ruling.

Ross Greer, a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Greens, said the decision pointed “to a clear way out of the Brexit mess,” while Alyn Smith, another Scottish politician who had brought the case, said: “A bright light has switched on above an exit sign.”

However, May and many other leadership contenders from her party have ruled out the possibility of a second referendum. Michael Gove, the environment secretary and leading Brexiter, said the ruling would not change the government’s approach.

"We don’t want to stay in the EU," he told the BBC. "We voted very clearly: 17.4 million people sent a very clear message that we want to leave the European Union.”

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But the main opposition party, Labour, has said all options should remain on the table, and other political parties including the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats have called for a second referendum.

Dame Margaret Beckett, a leading Labour supporter of the so-called People’s Vote campaign for a second referendum, said the judgment presented people with two clear options in the messy Brexit debate — to accept May’s deal or keep the existing arrangements with the EU.

“We now all know beyond any doubt that we can stay in the EU – it’s not too late,” she said. “In the next few days we can take Theresa May’s deal off the table too. Other Brexit options do not work any better than that of the prime minister because there is no deal that can keep all the promises made two years ago, or is better than the deal we’ve got in the EU.”

Cover image: Prime Minister Theresa May arrives back in Downing Street on December 10, 2018 in London, England. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)