“He brought his homework” says Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar, as Conservative Mark Francois shows the leaflet sent out before the EU referendum “The electorate elected a hung Parliament in 2017, which is a mandate for compromise” she says https://t.co/mf2yooyk4x #politicslive pic.twitter.com/CHAHTAYdNH

Brexiteer Mark Francois and left-wing commentator Ash Sarkar got into a tense row over how democracy works on Tuesday as Brexit wars spilled into the Supreme Court.

The two public figures clashed during BBC Two’s Politics Live broadcast over whether the EU referendum result in 2016 or MPs elected to parliament should decide the future of Brexit.

Holding aloft the government-funded 2016 leaflet appealing for voters to back Remain, Francois said MPs should implement the result of the referendum.

“This booklet cost £9.2m of British taxpayer money,” he said. “It went through every door in the country. And it said: this is your decision, the government will implement what you decide.”

But taunting Francois for having “brought his homework”, Sarkar said the 2017 election of a hung parliament showed people back a compromise deal.

“Either parliament is sovereign or it’s not,” the contributing editor of Novara Media repeatedly said. She added that she believed Brexit would end in another referendum.

It comes as judges at the Supreme Court began a hearing which will decide whether Boris Johnson’s shutdown of parliament in the face of Brexit on October 31 was legal.

Here is an excerpt from the testy exchange.