*UPDATES WITH SCOTTISH FIRST MINISTER’S REACTION TO SUPREME COURT DECISION
By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON (AA) – The U.K. government will have to seek an act of parliament before triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which will officially initiate Britain’s exit negotiations from the European Union, the country’s top court ruled Tuesday.
The decision announced by the Supreme Court’s president, Lord Neuberger, said the ruling came with an 8-3 majority of the judges.
“The supreme court…dismisses the secretary of state’s appeal. In a joint judgment of the majority, the supreme court holds that an Act of Parliament is required to authorise ministers to give notice of the decision of the UK to withdraw from the European Union,” the decision said.
Shortly after the decision, a government statement said the court decision will not change anything in terms of the U.K.’s leaving the EU.
“The British people voted to leave the EU, and the government will deliver on their verdict – triggering Article 50, as planned, by the end of March. Today’s ruling does nothing to change that,” it said.
Saying that parliament did back the referendum “by a margin of six to one,” the statement added that parliament “has already indicated its support for getting on with the process of exit to the timetable we have set out.”
“We respect the Supreme Court’s decision, and will set out our next steps to Parliament shortly,” it added.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn also reacted to the decision, saying that his party “respects the result of the referendum and the will of the British people and will not frustrate the process for invoking Article 50.”
Corbyn also urged the government Brexit plan to include accountability to parliament during exit negotiations as well as a vote on the final deal.
-Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
The ruling also said the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies have no say in the case.
“On the devolution issues, the court unanimously concludes that neither section 1 nor section 75 of the NIA is of assistance in this case, and that the Sewel Convention does not give rise to a legally enforceable obligation,” the court said.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon expressed disappointment over the court’s decision regarding the devolved administrations.
“We are obviously disappointed with the Supreme Court decision in respect to the devolved administrations and the legal enforceability of the Sewel convention,” she said in a statement.
The Sewel Convention is a procedure with which a devolved parliament in the U.K. gives the London government permission to legislate on a devolved matter.
“However, it is becoming clearer by the day that Scotland’s voice is simply not being heard or listened to within the U.K.,” Sturgeon said.
“The claims about Scotland being an equal partner are being exposed as nothing more than empty rhetoric,” she added.
She said: “This raises fundamental issues above and beyond that of EU membership. Is Scotland content for our future to be dictated by an increasingly right-wing Westminster Government with just one MP here – or is it better that we take our future into our own hands? It is becoming ever clearer that this is a choice that Scotland must make.”
Nicola Sturgeon previously said her administration was not bluffing about a second referendum on Scotland’s independence from the U.K. in case the central government’s Brexit negotiations cut her country off from the European single market.
A referendum held last June saw British voters decide to leave the 28-member bloc, a decision, which made David Cameron resign as prime minister shortly thereafter.
The ruling Conservative Party later nominated Theresa May as the new premier to lead the country’s exit negotiations with the EU.
However, a decision by the country’s High Court said the May government could not trigger Article 50 without parliament’s permission, but the government appealed this ruling at the Supreme Court, which took it up last December.
May has insisted her government will trigger Article 50 and said last week that her government will bring the final Brexit deal to the House of Commons for approval.
