Jeremy Hunt has said giving MPs a vote on Theresa May’s Brexit negotiating plans would harm the economy, but parliament was “highly likely” to get a vote on the final deal.

Last week the prime minister’s plans for leaving the European Union were thrown into disarray when three senior judges ruled that parliament, not the executive branch, was responsible for starting the process.

But the health secretary said it would be damaging to force the prime minister to reveal her hand. “The impact on the economy will be far worse if through some parliamentary mechanisms Theresa May is forced to lay out her entire negotiating strategy,” Hunt told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.



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“Parliament passes laws – it always has – but government negotiates treaties,” he said. “You can’t decide international treaties by a simple vote of MPs … you have to give the government latitude to make a deal.”

MPs were already involved in scrutinising the plans, Hunt said, adding: “Government has said it is highly likely there will be a vote to ratify the deal.”

The justice secretary, Liz Truss, faced criticism this weekend from senior lawyers for failing to condemn media attacks on the high court judges who ruled on the case. But Hunt said: “The idea that the government does not passionately defend the independence of the judiciary and the sovereignty of parliament is absolute nonsense.”

He described the legal challenge as “processology” that was really aimed at stopping the UK from leaving the EU “at all costs”. The government is to appeal against the ruling to the supreme court, with a hearing expected early next month. Theresa May said on Sunday she was confident the court would overturn the decision.



Most MPs supported the remain campaign, but Hunt said he would still expect them to vote in support of leaving the union. If the Lords voted against the proposal it would be “incredibly difficult” and “unprecedented”, but, he said: “I think it’s highly unlikely that parliament wouldn’t in the end back a decision to trigger article 50.”

Hunt earlier warned: “The damage to the fabric of our democracy would be far, far worse if people felt the establishment was trying to unpick the decision they have made.”

He aimed to play down suggestions that fallout from the court case could force an early general election. “I think a general election is, frankly, the last thing the government wants. Theresa May wants to get on with the job – and, frankly, it’s the last thing the British people want,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gina Miller, the businesswoman behind the successful legal challenge, said the high court ruling had stopped the government behaving like a “tinpot dictatorship”.

The investment fund manager and philanthropist also said the press had “behaved disgracefully” following the court judgment. She told Andrew Marr: “This is about creating legal certainty and, actually, everyone in the country should be my biggest fan because I’ve used my own money, and a few of us used our own money, to create legal certainty for Mrs May to move ahead.”

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She said it was “misdirection” to claim that the decision was unpicking parliamentary sovereignty. “The case is that she cannot use something called the royal prerogative to do it because we do not live in a tinpot dictatorship,” she said.

Miller, 51, was born in Guyana but grew up in Britain. She co-founded the firm SCM Private and previously launched a campaign with her hedge-fund manager husband, Alan, against mis-selling and hidden fund charges in the City of London’s fund management industry.

Reaction to the Brexit case had been fuelled by sexism, racism and homophobia, she said. “I was aware there would be nastiness because if there’s anything to do with the word Brexit, people lose their minds and it’s all about heart,” she said.

Nigel Farage warned there would be disturbances on the streets if parliament attempted to thwart Brexit. The interim Ukip leader said political anger – “the likes of which none of us in our lifetimes have ever witnessed” – would emerge if voters felt they were going to be “cheated” over the June referendum result to leave the EU.

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He called on Brexit backers to “get even” through peaceful protests and oppose at the ballot box anyone who sought to overturn the process. But Farage claimed he was “finished” with party politics, as he sought to play down the possibility of him returning to the long-term leadership of Ukip.

The MEP said: “We may have seen Bob Geldof and 40,000 people in Parliament Square moaning about Brexit. Believe you me, if the people in this country think they’re going to be cheated, they’re going to be betrayed, then we will see political anger the likes of which none of us in our lifetimes have ever witnessed in this country. Those newspaper headlines are reflecting that.”

Asked if there was a real danger of “disturbance in the streets” if Brexit was thwarted by parliament, Farage replied: “I think that’s right. I heard you talking to Gina Miller earlier about the nasty things that have been said about her. Believe you me, I’ve had years of this, I’ve had years of hate mobs – taxpayer-funded hate mobs – chasing me around Britain.

“The temperature of this is very, very high. Now, I’m going to say to everybody watching this who was on the Brexit side: let’s try to get even, let’s have peaceful protests and let’s make sure in any form of election we don’t support people who want to overturn this process.”