‘People’s Challenge’ to oppose Brexit at High Court

A new challenge to Brexit will launch on Monday, with a student from NI one of the five individuals involved in the ‘People’s Challenge.’

The case will go before the High Court in London, with the argument centred on the way in which Britain would leave the EU.

Some quarters have been calling it the ‘constitutional case of the decade.’

Prime Minister Theresa May moved to say she would invoke Article 50, the formal start of the Brexit process, by March of next year.

However, the ‘People’s Challenge’ has taken issue with the way that is being done, through Royal Prerogative, rather than through a Parliament vote.

Fergal McFerran from Northern Ireland is the President of the National Union of Students and is one of those involved in the landmark case.

“Our students, our academics, have been given rights through membership of the European Union, in terms of freedom of movement, to study, to travel, to work,” he said.

“Realistically, if Theresa May says through the Royal Prerogative, at her whim, rather than through the proper scrutiny that Parliament can provide, then those rights will be taken away without the proper process.”

The case differs from a legal challenge taken by a victims’ campaigner earlier this week, in that it is not challenging the result of the Brexit vote, but the way in which the process is being triggered.