London Independent | 27 June 2016
Parliament must still vote on a bill to allow the UK to leave the European Union, leading lawyers have said.
Geoffrey Robertson QC, who founded the Doughty Street Chambers, said the act which set up the referendum said “nothing” about its impact, meaning it was “purely advisory”.
A new bill to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act that took Britain into the EU must now be passed by parliament, he said, adding that MPs might not be able to vote until November when the economic effects of Brexit will be clearer.
“Under our constitution, speaking as a constitutional lawyer, sovereignty rests in what we call the Queen in parliament,” he told The Independent.
“It’s the right of MPs alone to make or break laws, and the peers to block them. So there’s no force whatsoever in the referendum result. It’s entirely for MPs to decide.
