Article 50

Jonathan Djanogly Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

All those figures will be published in due course, but the right hon. Gentleman is wrong about one thing: I have given in terms an undertaking to the House that there will be no dilution of employment rights as a result of our leaving the European Union. He has not been paying attention.

[Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon) (Con)]

The High Court judgment noted:

“The Government accepts that a notice under Article 50 cannot be withdrawn once it has been given.”

Why did the Government simply accept that? If they had maintained that triggering could be reversed by Parliament, would not Parliament remain sovereign, despite the Executive taking the decision to trigger article 50?

[Mr Davis]

The reason was not really a point of law so much as a point of constitutional and political reality. I did not see it as possible that we could reverse the decision of the British people.