Downing Street intends to get on with introducing a Brexit Bill:
“The British people voted to leave the EU, and the Government will deliver on their verdict – triggering Article 50, as planned, by the end of March. Today’s ruling does nothing to change that.”
David Davis says the Article 50 Bill will be presented “within days”:
.@DavidDavisMP says “within days” legislation to be introduced to give Government legal power to trigger #Article50 https://t.co/UldgmUAJED
— Sky News (@SkyNews) 24 January 2017
Gisela Stuart is happy:
“As a campaigner for Brexit, I do not see the application of democracy and due process as an obstacle – indeed I don’t expect this decision to even slow down the process. Why?
MPs and Lords know that a refusal to implement the decision made by a majority of the British public last year would erode trust in democratic institutions. Many MPs also know that, if they vote against article 50, they will be voting against their own constituents. The leave campaign won more votes than any campaign in British history. Had it been a general election, leave would have won over 400 seats in the House of Commons, and we’d all be calling it a landslide victory.
And the Lords? They know that if they vote down Brexit they risk making radical reform of the Lords the public’s No 1 priority. Ultimately, an acceptance that the democratic will of the public has to be respected combined with a natural sense of self-preservation will see both houses vote for article 50.”
Conservative MPs are confident about the vote:
Steve Baker reminds us that the Commons has an established majority for triggering Article 50 by the end of March:
The realisation is setting in that the ruling has quashed Continuity Remain’s hopes of Holyrood vetoing Brexit:
And the SNP is muttering about a second independence referendum. Again.
Even one of those involved in the various legal challenges concedes it may be a “Pyrrhic victory”: