House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Seema Malhotra argues that the involvement of Parliament would allow the prime minister to enter negotiations "with a united country... and the vote and support of Parliament behind her".

David Davis says the Great Repeal Bill will enable the House to debate and vote "and that will provide some support for the government". 

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Stella Creasy calls on Brexit secretary David Davis to be "honest about the government's red lines, so he is not left red-faced".

Mr Davis argues that respecting Parliament is "not an excuse for naivety in the negotiations".

Conservative Sheryll Murray argues that a deal with the EU cannot be done "when you have tied the hands of the negotiator".

Mr Davis thinks this "is what the opposition is trying to do". 

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Desmond Swayne jokes that it is good that parliamentary sovereignty is respected "even by those who campaigned to leave it in Brussels".

After that, Labour MP Chris Leslie cautions against triggering Article 50 by the end of March, before elections in other EU states next year.

SDLP MP Mark Durkan calls for scrutiny of "the precepts" of the negotiations, adding that it has implications for the Republic of Ireland as well as the UK.

Another Conservative, Bob Neill, says freedom of the press is not a licence for "personal, abusive and quite frankly disgraceful innuendo" about the judges in the High Court case.

The battle for Richmond Park has become more curious for those parties who are not standing, rather than those who are.

House of Commons
Parliament

UKIP MP Douglas Carswell agrees with Conservative Julian Lewis that the government should bring forward a motion in the House, which would "underline where the balance of opinion lies, both in this House and in the unelected place".

David Davis says it is "proper" that the government waits for the verdict of the Supreme Court. 

Image source, House of Commons

Former Conservative minister Anna Soubry urges Mr Davis to condemn the "villification" in parts of the media of the High Court judges, including what she said was the "homophobic abuse" of one of them, saying ministers must "set the tone" in the face of a worrying rise in hate crime since the referendum result.

Mr Davis says he "wholeheartedly" deplores what he suggests has been the personal abuse directed at Gina Miller, the investment manager who took the case to the courts in the first place, saying this cannot be tolerated.

On the same theme, former justice secretary Michael Gove says the independence of the judiciary is a "precious thing and must be respected" but so also is the freedom of the press as is the "democratic mandate" provided by the 17.4 million people who voted to leave the European Union - adding this cannot be thwarted.

Mr Davis says it is not paradoxical to uphold the independence of the judiciary but also to occasionally disagree with their judgement from time to time. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says the government produced policy papers on its negotiating position for the Nice Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty, while "two whole days of debate" were held on the Maastricht Treaty.

He asks why there will not be a debate on the "much greater process" of leaving the EU.

David Davis says there will be the Great Repeal Bill and other legislation which "the House will have the right to amend and vote on". 

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP spokesman Stephen Gethins says Parliament has the right to scrutinise the government's approach and further asks what involvement the devolved administrations will have "beyond a hotline".

Mr Gethins says that Brexit Secretary David Davis introduced a Parliamentary Control of the Executive Bill in 1999, which would have restricted the use of the royal prerogative.

David Davis does not respond to that comment, but says that Theresa May has held talks with Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Tory MP and prominent Leave campaigner Iain Duncan Smith says the Referendum Bill gave the "absolute right" to the people to decide.

"At no point was it unclear," he says.

David Davis agrees that the legislation said to the people: "This decisions is yours to take." 

House of Commons
Parliament

David Davis argues that if Parliament is allowed to set minimum conditions for negotiation, that will become "the maximum possible offer from our EU partners".

"Parliamentary scrutiny - yes. Telling the prime minister which hands she will be negotiating with - no," he tells the House.

"No-one starts the game by revealing his entire strategy," the Brexit secretary adds.

Mr Davis also says he would not want to "undermine" judges and "will take no lessons from Labour on this subject". 

House of Commons
Parliament

Sir Keir Starmer says no-one expects the government to set out all of its aims in negotiations with the EU but asks for some details, such as whether the government wants the UK to remain in the customs union.

He insists that Labour will not seek to "frustrate" the Brexit process of following the referendum result.

David Davis says that comments from former Labour leadership contender Owen Smith favouring a second referendum suggest that Labour does want to frustrate the process.

He accuses the opposition of "confusion" in its Brexit policy. 

House of Lords
Parliament

One of the most controversial aspects of the bill is its removal of a provision in the 2014 Wales Act that would require a referendum before the Welsh government could be given income tax raising powers.

Labour peer Lord Murphy of Torfaen asks what mandate there is for this change. 

He says that Wales is much poorer than other parts of the UK, and that the "resource base for an income tax is very low indeed", but the "burden would be very high".

The Conservative manifesto, external at the 2015 UK General Election promised that tax-raising powers would only be handed to the Welsh Assembly after a referendum.

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Backbenchers are now having their say in the Commons, with senior Tory MPs Iain Duncan Smith, Bill Cash and John Redwood all defending the government's position.

But former Labour leader Ed Miliband says the government must be much more open if it is to "heal the divisions" caused by the Brexit vote and build a consensus around its approach to leaving the EU.

In response, Mr Davis says he agrees that must be the aim but that won't be helped by people "thwarting the will of the country through parliamentary games". 

Image source, House of Commons

The exchanges have been fairly cordial so far. But the temperature rises as Mr Davis rejects Labour's claim that ministers have failed to defend the independence of the judiciary in the wake of Thursday's ruling. The MP says he has been "around the House quite a long time" and says he has done more than many on the Labour side to respect the rule of law. He goes on to recall an occasion during the last Labour government when a home secretary attacked a judge in person in the Commons - something he said he would never considering doing. He also points out that he staunchly defended former Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain when legal action was brought against him after he criticising judges in a case in Northern Ireland.

David Davis concludes his statement by saying the government is "disappointed" by the ruling but will not be distracted from its objective of delivering the referendum result and taking the UK out of the EU.

In response, shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer says Labour respects June 23's result and will not "frustrate the process by voting down Article 50".

But he says the government is being way too guarded about its negotiating objectives and urges ministers to "abandon the furtive executive approach taken so far" and to come to Parliament with much more information. 

The MP, a former director of public prosecutions, condemns what he says were the "appalling personal attacks" on the three High Court judges who ruled that Parliament must be consulted, claiming that Lord Chancellor Liz Truss had been "too reluctant and too slow" to defend them. 

House of Commons
Parliament

David Davis tells MPs the government intends to press ahead with a Great Repeal Bill in the next parliamentary session, which will repeal the European Comminities Act and transfer EU laws into UK law.

The government intends this bill to become law by the end of "the Article 50 process", he adds.

Mr Davis says he will "give no quarter" to anyone who "seeks to thwart" the referendum result. 

House of Commons
Parliament

"We respect and value" the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of the press, says David Davis.

"We will appeal the High Court's judgment at the Supreme Court," he confirms.

He says that the timetable for an appeal is "consistent" with the government's aim to invoke Article 50 by the end of March 2017. 

This would begin a two-year negotiating process to leave the EU.

Mr Davis adds that the government would defend its position if there is any appeal following a separate legal challenge against Brexit in Northern Ireland, which was rejected at the High Court in Belfast in October.