Theresa May says otherwise
More than half of Legal Cheek readers have given the middle finger to Theresa May and her “Brexit means Brexit” pledge, saying they don’t think Article 50 will ever be invoked.
On Tuesday, we reported Thom Brooks — EU law professor and head of Durham Law School — had gone public with his controversial view of Brexit.
Delighting Remain voters and irritating Daily Mail readers everywhere, Connecticut-born Brooks revealed he thinks Article 50 will never be triggered and, consequently, Brexit will never happen, despite the United Kingdom voting to leave the EU 52% to 48% on 23 June.
Brooks’ comments proved divisive in our comments section. For some, “out means out”, for others, “Brexit means Brexit… but that doesn’t mean that it will happen”.
Though polls hardly proved authoritative in the run-up to the EU referendum, we thought we’d put the controversial question to our Twitter following to see if they agreed with Brooks. Overwhelmingly, they did.
Of the 651 people that voted, 59% said they didn’t think Article 50 will ever be invoked, one citing their reason as: “too many clever citizens who can see the catastrophe ahead”.
While our poll result has proved decisive, the Prime Minister is pushing ahead with her commitment to trigger Article 50 in the new year.
This week, May also confirmed there would be no parliamentary vote on the EU referendum result. This promise comes despite an ongoing Brexit legal challenge in the High Court, scheduled to be heard by the Lord Chief Justice in October. It seems the Brexit fallout is shaping up to be yet another edition of lawyers vs politicians.