Brexit legal challenge aims to stop UK leaving European single market

BREXIT faces a fresh court challenge as the man who invented the word is joined by four new claimants in arguing that the referendum gave no mandate to leave the European single market.

Peter Wilding, a pro-EU campaigner credited with first using the term ‘Brexit’, expects his successful challenge to be heard in the High Court in February. 

He is joined by Adrian Yalland who told press on December 29 that “there is no democratic mandate to leave the single market treaty because neither the EU Referendum Act or the referendum question raised that possibility”. Echoing the ongoing appeal over the invocation of Article 50, the two, plus four other anonymous claimants argue that parliament must vote explicitly to leave the single market. 

In response the government has said that the UK is only a part of the European Economic Area ‘in its capacity as an EU member state’.