The Supreme Court, comprising of 11 judges, has today ruled, by a margin of eight to three, that Parliament must vote before the UK government can begin the Article 50 process of leaving the European Union.
The bill to trigger the Article 50 process must pass several stages in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords with both voting in favour of it by a majority. It is understood that the government has already prepared draft legislation in the event of the appeal being rejected so that this process does not delay the Government timetable which is to trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017.