British PM reassures EU over Brexit

Prime Minister Theresa May will tell European Union officials that a court ruling requiring a parliamentary vote will not derail her timetable for Britain to leave the bloc.

May's aides say she will appeal the decision by the High Court, which said that the government must get parliamentary approval to trigger Article 50, the formal divorce announcement. They also say she will stick to her timetable to do it by the end of March.

Parliament is unlikely to defy the referendum vote by blocking Brexit, but if - as one aide said was the logical conclusion of the High Court ruling - she is forced to draft legislation for both houses to consider, her March deadline looks tight, several lawmakers said.

That could force her to call an early election, they said, a move her spokeswoman rejected on Thursday, saying 2020 was still the focus.

"The government is focused on how do we deliver what the British people decided and how do we do that in the way that gets the best deal for Britain," May's spokeswoman said on Thursday.

"We've been very clear in our position that we don't agree with the court's view and that's why we are appealing it."

The court ruling has spurred hope among investors and pro-EU lawmakers that parliament will now be able to put pressure on May's government - which has three high profile eurosceptic ministers in key roles - to soften any plans for a "hard Brexit", or a clean break with the EU's lucrative single market.

But it has enraged pro-Brexit campaigners and Britain's eurosceptic newspapers, with the Daily Mail calling the three judges who handed down the ruling "Enemies of the people" and the best-selling Sun newspaper asking: "Who do EU think you are? Loaded foreign elite defy will of Brit voters."