Will Leaving the EU bring back Parliamentary Sovereignty?

The argument of whether or not the UK should leave the EU has been around ever since we joined back in 1973. Over the years, there has been a shifting of opinions between and across the two main parties but in January 2020 it was Boris Johnson’s conservative government that brought the UK out of the European Union. Throughout the leave campaign, one of the strongest arguments for the venture would be that our UK parliament would regain it’s sovereignty, but is this really the case?

Popular sovereignty is, essentially, power to the people and it is them that has the most say. In the UK this isn’t often the case as our parliamentary system incorporates MPs, which are elected by the people but once in the house of commons, they only have to adhere to party whips, so do not always follow the wishes of it’s constituents. In 2016, the referendum on exiting the European union brought in a high level of popular sovereignty as, although the referendum was not binding, it would of brought masses of public discontent if the government were to ignore the public’s wishes.

This particular example, however does not prove popular sovereignty ‘trumping’ parliamentary sovereignty in the UK as it is still only up to parliament to decide how the Brexit process, and any bills related to it, will pan out (e.g a soft or a hard Brexit). This of course can be countered by the 2011 European Union act which meant any new alterations tot our treaty with the EU which would mean a transfer of UK power to the EU , would require a referendum, this is known as a ‘referendum lock’.

Once particular deals go through regarding Brexit, there is often the question as to whether or not power retrieved by the UK government will be held solely within Westminster or throughout the devolved nations. This would seem like the obvious way forward as the restrictions on the UK are almost all regarding legislation, however, since tony Blair’s labour government transferred a lot of power to each of the devolved bodies in 1999 as a part of their manifesto, this means that Scotland now has some legislative power, and does not have to follow all areas that are covered by legislation set by Westminster.