Parliamentary EU Vote: Lucas ‘Will Take Into Account The Referendum Result In Wrexham’

70,407 local voters will possibly be represented by a couple of MP’s if a decision today over ‘Brexit’ is upheld.

Remarkably the in / out Referendum was held only back in June, with 41,544 local people voting to leave the EU and 28,822 voting to remain part of it – with a whopping 71.6% turnout, unheard of in Wrexham.

Today has seen a High Court judgement that currently means Parliament needs to vote before the famed Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty can be ‘triggered’, prompting the exit from the EU. The UK Government is appealing this decision, and any final outcome is likely in the new year.

Rather than the usual vote boundaries the EU Referendum vote was based on the local authority boundary, so both Ian Lucas in the Wrexham constituency and Susan Elan Jones in the Clwyd South constituency would be representing local voter views in any forthcoming parliamentary vote.

Prior to the Referendum both were ‘remainers’, with Elan Jones still having ‘one of the 48%’ on her twitter profile today. As recently as last month she was tweeting saying “Brexit vote is a tragedy – and I will continue to speak out”.

Mr Lucas had campaigned for the remain vote, prior to the election calling leaving a ‘body blow’. After the result he recognised the vote but called it a ‘calamity’, and has referenced a parliamentary vote, but not in terms of in/out:

The key point is that Parliament must have a vote on the opening position of the Government on the terms of negotiation with the EU.

— Ian Lucas (@IanCLucas) October 12, 2016

This morning Mr Lucas told Wrexham.com “I will take into account the Referendum result in Wrexham, look at what I am asked to vote on, vote, and then be accountable for it. That’s my job.”

We will update as and when we get comment from Susan Elan Jones.

This afternoon Susan Elan Jones told us, “I think we need to respect the EU referendum decision, but the terms and timing of the process must be subject to proper parliamentary scrutiny.

“As the referendum debate focused so much on Parliamentary sovereignty, I don’t think it would be possible to argue credibly for anything else. However, it is also important to realise that the decision made by the High Court today really does call into question the Government’s strategy and judgement.”

Locally only Wrexham.com and the Daily Post thought the EU Referendum was worth covering as it was quite a big thing, you can see our on the night coverage here…

A copy of the judgement is doing the rounds on social media, with relevant bits marked: