Chief figures from the Brexit campaign are angry Parliament will be given a vote on Article 50 - despite having long-argued in favour of parliamentary sovereignty.
They raged at a High Court ruling today that said Theresa May had to consult Parliament before formally withdrawing Britain from the EU.
Politicians who spent months promising Brits they could “take back control” of their laws and sovereignty argued fiercely that elected Westminster officials should be denied the chance to debate the biggest political shake-up in modern politics.
Here are six of the most surprising turnarounds.
1. Suzanne Evans
The Ukip leadership-hopeful today took to social media to question how the High Court’s “activist judges” “dared” granting Parliament a vote.
But in May this year, she made the case for Brexit by saying that people should vote Leave to undo the “peril” being wrought on “parliamentary sovereignty”.
”Our boys didn’t fight in two World Wars for a United States of Europe. They fought and died for what is now is peril: our democratic independence, our freedom, and for the parliamentary sovereignty of the United Kingdom.”
2. Nigel Farage
The man who forced David Cameron to hold an EU referendum in the first place said he feared a “betrayal may be near at hand” after today’s news.
Lamenting Parliament being given a vote is far cry from what he wrote in October 2015, when the then-Ukip leader wrote in the Daily Telegraph:
“I believe in Britain. A Britain outside of the EU with an exciting future ahead of it. A proud, patriotic country that has control of its borders, represents itself on the world stage and makes its own laws in our own sovereign Parliament.”
3. Patrick O’Flynn
“Parliament has the sovereign right to MAKE the law,”
“The UK parliament is sovereign and legitimate to us.”
4. Leave.EU
Co-founder of one of the anti-EU campaign groups Aaron Banks released a statement on behalf of the group accused the judges behind today’s decision of “declaring war on democracy”.
But both Leave.EU and Banks have previously been great defenders of Parliament being the sovereign and ultimate decision-maker.
The campaign but out at a statement in November 2015 that read:
“Vote to leave the EU to ensure law-making power returns to our sovereign national parliament.”
While Banks commented in May this year:
“If parliament is sovereign we can either do a brilliant job or awful depending on who we elect. It’s called Democracy.”
5. David T. C. Davies
One Conservative MP, recently of ‘dental checks for child refugee’ fame, suggested the move to give his colleagues a vote was taking away power from the people.
He earlier wrote in May this year:
“I believe it is wrong that laws are made by unelected officials in Brussels, not by elected MEPs and certainly not by our own MPs in Westminster.”
6. Jack Lopresti
The Conservative MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke was another of those furious at the judges’ attempt to “thwart the will of the British people”.
But he argued in a letter signed by 14 other Tory MPs back in January this year that:
“Whatever one’s views on the EU debate, many will agree that parliamentary sovereignty should be the key focus in any renegotiations.”