Headlines are suggesting that the EU court.......>

UK: Headlines are suggesting that the EU court aide suggests Britain could

withdraw from Article 50 unilaterally. Assuming that this was binding, it would

mean that no EU country could veto the UK withdrawing Article 50 ahead of the

March 29 Brexit date.

- This means that if the UK wanted to it could withdraw Article 50 before March

29, re-submit another Article 50 shortly afterwards and re-set the 2-year

negotiating clock.

- This would therefore reduce the risk that the UK crashes out of the EU without

a deal as the UK has much more control over the negotiating timetable rather

than a hard deadline.

- The chances of May triggering this are likely to be very low. However, if May

was removed as PM (potentially following a loss of the Dec 11 vote), a new

leader could withdraw and re-submit Article 50 and start the negotiations all

over again. 

- Note that later today we also have parliament voting on whether the Government

was in contempt in not releasing the legal advice.