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Originally Posted by RichardCoulter
Is our Government able to hold a binding referendum if they make this clear beforehand?
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No, because nothing is binding, ever. Even Parliament can’t pass anything binding, because Parliament has the power to repeal whatever it enacts. Everything from the Theft Act to the Fraud Act, the Disability Discrimination Act and, indeed, the European Communities Act is British Law only until Parliament chooses to repeal it.
The nearest you could get would be an Act of Parliament that authorised a referendum and specified exactly what would happen in the event of certain outcomes. But even then, Parliament could subsequently intervene to prevent it, which is exactly what is happening now. Parliament passed the EU Withdrawal Act which made it a fact of British Law that the U.K. will cease to be a member of the EU at 11pm this 29th of March. Some Remainers have realised that that means we leave, deal or no deal, and are pursuing ever more arcane procedures - plus a few unprecedented ones - in order to get Parliament to repeal that law so that we don’t leave on 29 March, or at least, we don’t leave unless a withdrawal agreement has been concluded with the EU and ratified by Parliament.