The CEO of one of the UK's biggest tech companies is fighting the Brexit vote in court
London law firm Mishcon de Reya is taking legal action to make sure that Article 50, the procedure for the UK to exit the EU, is only triggered after an act of parliament. The firm argues that triggering Article 50 without the permission of parliament would be illegal.
The law firm's clients have been secret until now. Guido Fawkes has obtained email sent by Alex Chesterman, the CEO of the publicly listed British technology company Zoopla, promoting the legal action.
Zoopla is one of the UK's largest technology companies, and went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2014 with a valuation of £919 million. The email itself isn't proof that Chesterman's company is one of Mishcon de Reya's clients, but it does look likely. Zoopla did not return a request for comment.
Here's Chesterman's full email, via Guido Fawkes:
"If the correct constitutional process is not followed then the notice to withdraw from the EU would be unlawful and open to legal challenge…
With this in mind, Mishcon de Reya, on behalf of a number of clients have commenced a legal process to ensure the UK Government will not trigger the procedure for withdrawal from the EU without parliamentary approval and have, subsequent to his article, retained Lord Pannick QC to act as counsel in this action. These steps seek to ensure that any Article 50 notification process is lawful.
I strongly encourage you to support this important issue. We want to ensure that this once-in-a-generation issue is handled properly under UK law with the correct constitutional process applied to an irreversible decision of this magnitude.
Please can I ask you to action as follows below:
1. Email Mishcon to lend your support/name to this process
2. Please use the hashtag: #mpstodecide and share/tweet the link to the Mishcon press release
3. Use this email as a basis to send your own version to your network to encourage wider support"