There has been much speculation that the Prime Minister will use one of these two mechanisms to avoid complying with the Benn Act, which forces the Prime Minister to ask for an Article 50 extension in the event of a deal or a no-deal not being approved.

This speculation has been fuelled by various newspaper articles with lurid headlines but with content that tells a very different story – Labour claims that PM is aiming to invoke emergency powers using the Civil Contingencies Act

The reality is that any attempt to use these options will be rapidly defeated in Parliament or struck down by the Courts.

There is an excellent Twitter thread from Jolyon Maugham, including a link to a formal opinion produced by Helen Mountfield QC, our lead QC in the “Miller” case, here: https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1178210394881626117

For those not on Twitter a copy of Helen Mountfield’s advice can be found here: 19.09.28 Helen Mountfield QC – Civil Contigencies Act advice (final)

There is also a piece from David Allen Green on why The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 is not an Enabling Act for Brexiters and another on why the PM cannot subvert the Benn Act by asking the EU to ignore it or use secondary legislation to block it – Brexit, Padfield, and the Benn Act

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Published by Grahame Pigney on behalf of The People’s Challenge Ltd.