Anti-Brexit campaigners outside the High Court today (Picture: EPA)

The High Court has a rejected a bid to halt Brexit negotiations.

Elizabeth Webster, 54, brought the challenge saying the decision to leave the EU was not legal.

Her lawyers said the referendum result wasn’t voted on by MPs, and the prime minister should not therefore have triggered Article 50, which starts the formal process of leaving.

However, the argument was rejected by Lord Justice Gross and Mr Justice Green.

Ms Webster had hoped to get permission to bring a judicial review which, she claimed, could result in Brexit negotiations coming to a halt.

The small business owner and former Lib Dem candidate wanted to see negotiations halted until MPs ratified the Brexit vote by an Act of Parliament.

Judges rejected the claim (Picture: EPA)

To date, a crowdfunding campaign is edging close to its £200,000 target, with nearly 7,000 people donating.

On her page on CrowdJustice, Ms Webster, who ran as a candidate for North Swindon in the 2017 general election, says: ‘We are a group of ordinary people who value due process and the sovereignty of Parliament in our democracy.’

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She added: ‘In spite of what the Government claims, the Article 50 notification given on 29 March 2017 is invalid, and we are seeking to challenge its legality in the courts.

‘If we are successful, the notification will be nullified, Brexit will be halted, and the decision to leave or remain will be back in the hands of Parliament where it belongs.

‘The Government maintains that the 2016 EU Referendum was a decision to leave the EU – a decision ‘by the people’.

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‘This is untrue. The referendum was advisory only, and the Supreme Court has ruled that neither the Government nor the people are legally entitled to make such a decision.

‘Only Parliament may do so, and then only by an Act of Parliament.’

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