Belfast court rejects two Brexit legal challenges

The pound slumped against the dollar after a Northern Ireland High Court rejected two legal challenges against Brexit on Friday.

Justice Maguire ruled that the 1998 Good Friday Agreement did not prevent the government from triggering Article 50, the clause in the Lisbon treaty which will start a two-year clock on formal negations to leave the EU.

There were two challenges, one from a cross-party group of members of the North Ireland executive committee, Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Alliance party and the Green party, and the other from Raymond McCord, whose son was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997.

They said the government could not trigger Article 50 without a vote in Parliament first.

The Prime Minister said Parliament could debate the strategy of the UK leaving the EU before the clause is activated by the end of March, but stopped short of allowing MPs a vote.

McCord’s barrister, Ronan Lavery QC, argued the Good Friday Agreement gave sovereignty of Northern Ireland to its people, so constitutional changes such as Brexit could not be imposed by Westminster, the BBC reported.

Britain voted to leave the EU by 55.8% to 44.2%, however Northern Ireland voted to remain by a majority of 56% to 44%.

Meanwhile, a similar claim is currently being heard at the High Court in London.

At 1229 the pound was down 0.42% to 1.21161 against the dollar.