Prime Minister Theresa May has laid out her plans for triggering Article 50 by March 2017 to formally start the process of Britain leaving the European Union
An hundred days after British voters narrowly voted to leave the EU, the Prime Minister told delegates at the Conservative Party conference yesterday (2 October) “we will invoke Article 50 no later than the end of March next year”.
Article 50 in the Lisbon Treaty is the formal process any member state must follow for leaving the EU.
Ms May said she will soon put before parliament a Great Repeal Bill which will remove from the UK statute book the forty year old European Communities Act.
The bill, to be included in the next Queen’s speech, will mean the 1972 Act, which reads across EU law to Britain, “will no longer apply from the date upon which we formally leave the European Union”.
She told delegates: “And its effect will be clear. Our laws will be made not in Brussels but in Westminster.
“The judges interpreting those laws will sit not in Luxembourg but in courts in this country. The authority of EU law in Britain will end.”
As the European Communities Act is repealed, the body of existing EU law will be converted into British law, she said.
She told Conservative Party delegates, by absorbing current EU rules into British law, “we will give businesses and workers maximum certainty as we leave the European Union”.
“The same rules and laws will apply to them after Brexit as they did before.
“Any changes in the law will have to be subject to full scrutiny and proper Parliamentary debate. “
Existing workers’ legal rights will continue to be guaranteed in law, she added.
Once the Great Repeal Bill is given Royal Ascent, parliament, “subject to international agreements and treaties with other countries and the EU on matters such as trade” will be able to change any law it chooses.
Speaking to critics who argue Article 50 can only be triggered after agreement in both the Commons and the Lords, Ms May accused them of “trying to subvert” the Brexit Leave vote.
“Likewise, the negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union are the responsibility of the government and nobody else,” she said.
Laying out her plans for post-Brexit Britain, Ms May said, “there is no such thing as a choice between “soft Brexit” and “hard Brexit””.
“This line of argument – in which “soft Brexit” amounts to some form of continued EU membership and “hard Brexit” is a conscious decision to reject trade with Europe – is simply a false dichotomy”.
Ms May dismissed suggestions Britain would seek a “Norway model”, or a “Switzerland model”, saying her government will “seek the best deal possible as we negotiate a new agreement with the European Union”.
“I want it to include cooperation on law enforcement and counter-terrorism work. I want it to involve free trade, in goods and services.
“I want it to give British companies the maximum freedom to trade with and operate in the Single Market – and let European businesses do the same here.
But she added: “We are not leaving the European Union only to give up control of immigration again. And we are not leaving only to return to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.”
