Debates between Geoffrey Cox and David Tredinnick during the 2017-2019 Parliament

Wed 25th Sep 2019

Legal Advice: Prorogation

Debate between Geoffrey Cox and David Tredinnick
Wednesday 25th September 2019

(5 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Geoffrey Cox Portrait The Attorney General
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I cannot answer the last question, as the hon. Gentleman well knows, as Attorneys General have long maintained the convention that we cannot disclose either the fact or content of any advice. But I will deal with the first point. There is no question of this Government not obeying the law. There is a question as to precisely what obligations the law might require of the Government, but once those obligations are ascertained with clarity—and I am not saying that they are not clear; I am just saying that it is a legitimate consideration the Government must go through—the Government will obey them.

David Tredinnick Portrait David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)
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Set alongside the decision of the Supreme Court, what force in law does the decision of the British people to leave the European Union have?

Geoffrey Cox Portrait The Attorney General
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The law in relation to the referendum is that it was not binding upon this Parliament. It was binding in every moral sense upon those who promised the British people that it would be implemented, but it was not binding as a matter of law.