Is it Possible for the U.K. Parliament to Veto Brexit?

The stunning outcome of last week’s U.K. referendum has unleashed waves of doubt about what happens next. Here are two questions doing the rounds:

Can the result somehow be overturned?

This comes up again and again. In short, it’s possible, but unlikely. The referendum is non-binding, so the next prime minister could just choose to ignore it. If there’s a snap election, a political party could promise to call a new referendum. Scotland could also make things difficult.

Still, it would be extremely difficult to ignore the views of the 17.4 million people who voted to leave.

Could the U.K. parliament veto the referendum?

In theory, yes. Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson argues that parliamentary assent is needed to repeal the 1972 legislation that took the U.K. into the EU. So lawmakers could override the public will by refusing to remove that law from the statute books.

Others aren’t so sure. Raoul Ruparel of the Open Europe think tank says that the legislative body can certainly apply political pressure on the government. But once Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is triggered, Britain would have to leave the EU after two years, regardless of what parliament does.

And the question remains as to whether lawmakers would risk angering voters by blocking the referendum. Especially as it was backed by supporters of both major political parties.

Source: Bloomberg