Thread by @EmporersNewC

@DExEUgov OK, DExEU let me give you a little lesson in a little thing I like to call "Democracy".

@DExEUgov The referendum wasn't to "Leave the EU", it was to decide "whether the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union."

This is the summary of the act which gave power to the referendum.

@DExEUgov That was the law that our democratic parliament debated and gave power to. It is not for the executive to then decide that the referendum gave you any more powers than the ones the people of this country have agreed to.

@DExEUgov Which means, you don't get to dictate to us that the referendum was anything more than a decision to remain a member of the United Kingdom.

@DExEUgov Politicians will quite likely pull this crap, but you're not a politician, you're a government department. You should respect the law, and that means when you talk about what the referendum was, you should not be making political arguments that go way beyond legislation.

@DExEUgov If we now refer to The Referendum Act 2015 7(1)(b) you will see that the law explicitly required the government (that's you) to create a document containing information on the countries which would fall into the scope where the UK was not a member of the European Union.

@DExEUgov You will note in the document written as a result of the Referendum Act 2015, Free Movement, Customs Union, in fact a whole range of options were marked as possible outcomes if we voted to no longer be a member of the European Union.

@DExEUgov Including a statement saying you would be looking for the best possible balance of these options.

@DExEUgov It's pretty clear, therefore, that the law and the documentation that the government published as a result of the law do not rule out any of those options.

In a democracy, we make the rules so we follow the rules.

@DExEUgov So how about at least pretending that you respect the law?

If it isn't membership, in the context of the law, it respects the referendum.

@DExEUgov In the context of the information that the government put out during the referendum. It respects that too.

@DExEUgov The only thing is doesn't respect it what a campaign of unelected people who we can't hold to account said in a referendum. It's very sweet, but it's not democracy.

@DExEUgov If the executive wants to implement something then they are going to have to respect the division of powers and ask Parliament. Where the people are properly represented.