Senior Tories have urged Theresa May to scrap the government’s appeal against a high court ruling which states that parliament must vote on leaving the EU.



Oliver Letwin, the former head of the government’s Brexit preparations, has called on the prime minister to abandon its supreme court appeal over the decision on article 50, the mechanism that triggers exit negotiations.

The former attorney general Dominic Grieve and former solicitor-general Sir Edward Garnier also said May should avoid taking the case to the UK’s highest court.

The three Conservatives, who all supported the remain campaign, said they wanted the process to start as soon as possible with a bill in parliament.

Garnier told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday: “That way you avoid an unnecessary legal row, you avoid a lot of unnecessary expense, but you also avoid an opportunity for ill-motivated people to attack the judiciary, to misconstrue the motives of both parties to the lawsuit, and you provide certainty.”

Letwin, a former minister who was director of the “Brexit unit” after the referendum, said avoiding the supreme court would avert the risk of judges granting veto powers to devolved administrations.

Grieve told Today the government’s chances of success at the supreme court hearing, scheduled to start on 5 December, were low. “I can’t see the point in the government continuing with the case and also agree that if they enact primary legislation, they will get it through parliament,” he said.

Three high court judges ruled on 3 November that the prime minister does not have the power to trigger article 50 on her own. The government quickly announced that it would appeal against the decision.

A spokesman for the Department for the Exit of the European Union said: “The country voted to leave the European Union in a referendum approved by an act of parliament and the government is determined to respect that result.

“We will robustly defend our position in the forthcoming appeal. As the prime minister made clear [on Friday], our work is on track and we remain committed to triggering article 50 by the end of March next year.”

The Tory former education secretary Nicky Morgan backed the calls for May to drop the case.

Morgan, a prominent remain supporter, told LBC radio: “I think it would be a good thing if the government did abandon the appeal to the supreme court and they got on with a short act of parliament, so parliament can get on with saying yes to the government triggering article 50.

“We can get on then with negotiating the terms on which we are going to leave, the terms on which we are going to continue to have a relationship with the EU going forward.”

The former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said the Tories’ comments showed their contempt for Scotland’s rights.

The SNP’s Europe spokesman said: “Sir Oliver Letwin and co have now blurted out the true blue Tory attitude towards Scotland. They would even rather abandon the Brexit appeal than take any chance of the supreme court being sensitive to Scottish European concerns.

“Every Tory in Scotland should cringe with embarrassment as the Tory contempt for Scotland’s rights as a nation has been laid bare. The trouble for the Tories in Scotland is that their Westminster colleagues have been caught telling the truth about their anti-Scottish prejudices.”

