Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution

A programme of research and commentary on the principles of democracy in the UK constitution, parliament's influence over Brexit, and the implications of these developments for parliamentary reform.

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This project was funded through the Director of the Constitution Unit, Meg Russell’s, Senior Fellowship with the ESRC-funded UK in a Changing Europe programme, which ran for three years, from June 2019 to May 2022. She was one of nine such Senior Fellows focused on a variety of Brexit-related fields.

Professor Russell’s Fellowship focused on the broad topic of ‘Brexit, Parliament and the Constitution’. Within this, the project focused on three main topics: 

  • The relationship and tensions between principles of direct and representative democracy in the UK constitution.
  • The extent and shape of parliament’s influence over the Brexit process.
  • What the Brexit process has told us about the need for possible future parliamentary reforms.

This work built on various previous projects conducted by Professor Russell, including the Independent Commission on Referendums, her work on the policy impact of the Westminster parliament, and multiple projects on parliamentary reform, including the project on parliament’s control of its own agenda that helped lay the groundwork for the 2009 recommendations by the ‘Wright committee’.

The Fellowship comprised two main elements. The first was to work alongside the UKICE team to facilitate events and up-to-date commentary. The second was to carry out and publish detailed research. As such, outputs from the Fellowship included blogposts, podcasts and media appearances, as well as academic journal articles and detailed reports. This culminated in the publication of The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit by Meg Russell and Lisa James in March 2023.

Key outputs

  • The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit by Meg Russell and Lisa James, published by Oxford University Press in March 2023.
  • Parliamentary Influence on Brexit Legislation, 2017-19, by Thomas Fleming and Lisa James, published in Parliamentary Affairs in June 2022. This article analyses parliament's influence on the Brexit legislation of 2017-19.
  • Chapters by Meg Russell, on 'Government-Parliament Relations', and Lisa James, on 'Public Appointments', in UK in a Changing Europe's March 2022 report 'Constitution and Governance in the UK'.
  • Taking Back Control: Why the House of Commons Should Govern its Own Time - published in January 2021. This report by Meg Russell and Dr Daniel Gover, an Honorary Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit, addresses why MPs lack control of their own institution, the problems this causes, and what should be done. This report was published in collaboration with UK in a Changing Europe.
  • A chapter on parliament by Meg Russell, in UK in a Changing Europe's January 2021 report 'Brexit and Beyond'.
  • A chapter on legislation, by Meg Russell and Lisa James, in UK in a Changing Europe's September 2020 report 'What Would No Deal Mean?'
  • Brexit and Parliament: The Anatomy of a Perfect Storm - published, free to access, in Parliamentary Affairs in June 2020. In this article, Meg Russell charts the stages of parliament’s Brexit ‘perfect storm’, tracing its causes to four factors: the design of the referendum, a period of (unfamiliar) minority government, deeply divided political parties, and the weakness of parliamentary rules in facilitating a solution. In the end, the Brexit argument was primarily one inside the Conservative Party, but parliament got the blame.
  • Parliament and Brexit - published jointly with UK in a Changing Europe and the University of Leicester in March 2020. This report analyses parliament’s role in the Brexit process to date, and asks what changes may be needed to ensure that parliament is ready for phase two of the negotiations and beyond. It includes chapters authored by Meg Russell and Lisa James.
  • A chapter on parliament by Meg Russell in UK in a Changing Europe's February 2020 report 'Brexit: what next?'.
  • The Mechanics of a Further Referendum on Brexit Revisited: Questions for the New Parliament - published in December 2019. This report examines the scenarios under which a further referendum on Brexit might take place - depending on the outcome of the 2019 general election, unknown at the time of publication - and the key questions its designers would face

All Meg Russell's blog posts can be found on the Constitution Unit blog, with many also available on the UK in a Changing Europe website. Selected posts include:

  • Invited oral evidence to the Scottish Parliament Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee on 21 April 2022 on the Coronavirus pandemic and parliaments. A transcript is available here.
  • Invited oral evidence to the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 6 October 2020 on the prospects for the government's proposed Commission on the Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights, summarised here.
  • Invited oral evidence to the House of Commons Procedure Committee on 8 July 2020, on Commons procedure during the pandemic. Our summary, including links to the full evidence session and other relevant resources, is here.
  • Invited oral evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee on 24 June 2020, on parliament's workings during the coronavirus pandemic. Find our summary, including a link to the full evidence session, here.
  • Meg Russell's expert evidence to a committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 29 May 2020, on how parliaments have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, summarised here.
  • Meg Russell's evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on prorogation and the Supreme Court judgment on 8 October 2019.
  • Evidence to the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee on prospects for a further Brexit referendum on 24 July 2019.

Project information

This project was led by Professor Meg Russell, with Lisa James as Research Assistant. It was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s UK in a Changing Europe initiative and lasted between June 2019 to May 2022.

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