Alongside Dr Hannah White of the Institute for Government and Martyn Atkins, Senior Clerk of the Commons, Professor Gavin Phillipson was one of three speakers at the meeting in Westminster on 10 June 2019, chaired by the Rt Hon Dominic Grieve MP, addressing the question 'Can Parliament Stop a No Deal Brexit'?
The meeting discussed the possible prorogation of Parliament; whether legislation to require the Prime Minister to seek an extension to the Article 50 deadline would work with a PM who actually wanted a no deal exit; and possible routes to a General Election.
Professor Phillipson argued strongly that, given prorogation is a reserve power of the Crown, the Queen was not invariably obliged to exercise it on request, if it was clear it was being misused in an attempt to prevent Parliament carrying out its constitutional role.
He also pointed out that if it seemed likely the new Conservative party leader, when appointed PM, would be immediately defeated in a vote of no confidence, an alternative would be to delay their appointment and for Theresa May to instead ask the Commons to agree to an early General Election under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. This would avoid the new leader losing such a vote; they could instead take over at the start of the subsequent election campaign.
Commenting on the meeting, Professor Phillipson said “the discussion was lively and intense; this is one of the biggest challenges Parliament has faced since the war.”