Patience Wheatcroft said that if the courts ruled legislation was needed to trigger Article 50, the House of Lords should reject it

A cross-party coalition in the House of Lords is pursuing plans to block Brexit.

Baroness Wheatcroft, the former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal Europe and former business editor of The Times, said that it was “imperative that we don’t press the button on Article 50”.

She said that if the courts ruled that legislation was needed to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, the House of Lords should reject it.

“There is an argument that at some stage people ought to be given an opportunity to think again,” she said, setting out her hopes that peers could delay Brexit being triggered and give time for Britain’s membership of the EU to be put to the public again in either a second referendum