James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

Image source, Press Association

Theresa May is going to have to start taking Boris Johnson seriously if she wants the world to do likewise.

Last night I sat on the same table as the foreign secretary at the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards. He was given a gong for "comeback of the year" after his failed leadership bid propelled him into King Charles Street.

Mr Johnson gave a typically self-deprecatory speech, saying he hoped he would last longer than Lord Heseltine's mother's dog, Kim, which survived partial strangulation by the Tory peer only later to be put down.

He spoke about the need to press on with Brexit, which he described as taking "the machete of freedom to the brambles of EU legislation".

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UKIP MEP Gerard Batten has accused the High Courts of making a "political decision" over the triggering of Article 50 to "thwart" the will of the people who voted to Leave the EU.

He said the High Court reasoned that triggering Article 50 “will inevitably effect the changing of domestic law”.

But he insisted: "However, this is precisely the argument for why they cannot make this ruling. Treaties are merely agreements between governments. The courts cannot rule on them until they become part of domestic law by means of Acts of Parliament ... Triggering Article 50 may indeed inevitably affect domestic law but until it does the courts have no jurisdiction."

Mr Batten said if the Supreme Court confirms the High Court decision "they will be setting themselves against the democratic will of the electorate and will precipitate a constitutional crisis. The outcome of which cannot be foreseen.”

House of Lords
Parliament

Independent peer Lord Paul, who is chancellor of Wolverhampton University, says that the result of the EU referendum was not the one that most in the higher education sector wanted.

However, he says the result must be accepted and the best outcome for the UK secured.

In his view, that outcome would include "considerate and pragmatic immigration reforms".

House of Lords
Parliament

Labor's Lord Judd worries about "the spirit of universities" believing that morale has "plummeted" as uncertainty about the status of EU nationals "prevails".

He argues that it would be "impossible" for a university to remain relevant unless it is an international community.

If this is not preserved he fears that UK universities "will wither and become irrelevant".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Liz Kendall is speaking to introduce her backbench business debate on the effect of Brexit on financial and other professional services. She says financial and professional services are worth 12% of GDP, employ two million people and contribute "11% of the total tax take." They are "essential for funding our public services", she says.

She says there's a wrong perception that the sector is a London thing, but major employers have bases all over the UK, like Aviva in Norwich, JP Morgan in Bournemouth, and Citigroup in Belfast.

She says leaving the European Union has "serious implications for the future of this vital sector". She says it's incredibly important that UK financial firms retain "passporting" rights, to continue to be able to trade in EU and EEA markets.

Lord Kerr, who designed Article 50. says he never imagined that it would be used by the UK to leave the EU.

BBC News Channel

Former Northern Ireland secretary and prominent Leave campaigner Theresa Villiers has urged MPs and peers "to respect" the referendum result, which she described as "a huge exercise in democracy".

If the courts conclude that Article 50 has to be approved by Parliament, then it should get on with tabling the measure for a vote, the Conservative MP said.

Pressed that those who voted to Leave didn't know exactly what sort of Brexit they were backing, Ms Villiers said: "It was pretty clear that people voted to take back control of making our laws ... I don't think it's such a murky process to work out what people wanted when they voted to leave."

Challenging a High Court ruling that MPs should be consulted over leaving the EU would be a mistake, the first minister warns.

Parliament’s new cross-party Exiting the European Union select committee has anounced its first inquiry examining the UK’s negotiating objectives for its withdrawal from the EU. 

Launching the inquiry, the Labour chair of the committee Hilary Benn, said: 

The committee has also decided to visit Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the regions of England to hear people’s views and gather evidence.

Image source, EPA

Investment manager Gina Miller has been the lead claimant in the case to get Parliament to vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the EU - but who is she?

Ms Miller, 51, is an investment manager and philanthropist who was born in Guyana but grew up in Britain, co-founding the investment firm SCM Private in 2009.

She launched True and Fair with her hedge fund manager husband, Alan, which campaigns against mis-selling and hidden fund charges in the City of London's fund management industry.

Read a full profile

Hannah White, the Institute of Government's, external director of research, analyses the options...

What was the High Court deciding?

The court case was to decide if the government could trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, external using its ‘prerogative power’. This means the power – originally held by the King or Queen but now exercised by ministers – to act without parliamentary consent.

The High Court has ruled against the government, saying it will need to secure Parliament’s consent before triggering Article 50.

Does this mean Brexit won’t happen?

No. The court’s decision does not override the result of the referendum – it only rules on the process which the government must follow to give effect to the result.

This judgment has placed a new obstacle on the road towards the UK leaving the EU. The government has announced its intention to appeal, but no one has discussed overturning the referendum result.

So what does happen next?

The government has indicated that it intends to appeal against the High Court’s decision. The appeal will leapfrog the Court of Appeal and move straight to the Supreme Court, which has set aside time from 7-8 December to hear the case. Given the political time pressure, it seems likely that the Supreme Court will attempt to issue its judgment before Christmas.

Read more, external

Stephen Booth, Open Europe's acting director and director of policy and research, says Theresa May’s plan to trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017 could still be possible.

In a blog on the Open Europe website, external, Mr Booth says the government's appeal to the Supreme Court is expected to be heard on 7 December and presumably ruled on by early January.

He adds:

Read more, external

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

France has appointed a new "ambassador" to encourage companies away from the UK to go to France in the aftermath of the Brexit vote. 

Ross McInnes tells BBC Radio 4's The World at One his team is not about the French government "punishing the Brits for Brexit" but more about offering practical help to companies who might be considering moving to Paris. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Non-affiliated peer Lord Smith of Finsbury uses the final parts of his speech to condemn the "hugely disturbing rise" in xenophobia. 

He says that senior academics in Cambridge with EU backgrounds had been at the receiving end of such abuse and accuses the referendum of giving a "license to denigrate".

"Where is that tolerant, internationalist, welcoming, quirky, slight grumpy, outward-looking, gentle, civilised country that I thought we were living in?" he asks "I want it back."

Nicola Sturgeon welcomes as "hugely significant" a court ruling that parliament must vote before the UK can start the process of leaving the EU.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Reality Check

The claim: The court ruling that the government cannot use prerogative powers to trigger Article 50 could scupper Brexit. 

Reality check verdict: The process of obtaining parliamentary approval may delay or complicate the process but it is hard to imagine that Parliament could ignore the outcome of the referendum.

Read the full Reality Check here.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith says the High Court judges' ruling was "unequivocal in backing the case made by the complainants".

This means the prime minister has "lost control of the timing and approach" to the UK's Brexit negotiations.

The implication is that Article 50 can only be triggered by an Act of Parliament, Norman says.

But because legislation can take many months to go through Parliament, Theresa May's ambition of triggering Article 50 by the end of March "will go out of the window".

Norman says critical MPs may use the opportunity to table amendments that could urge the UK to stay part of the single market.

He says the fear, the row, the controversy is not over the vote - because even those MPs who were quite hostile to Brexit claim they will vote for triggering Article 50 as to do anything else "would be a slap in the face to the British public".

Norman says the only way government can get through this painlessly is if it consults parliament in a one-off vote in an afternoon.