Britain will need act of parliament to trigger Brexit if loses court battle: lawyer

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May's government will have to put forward a parliamentary bill if it loses a Supreme Court case over whether it can begin Brexit talks without lawmakers' approval, a government lawyer said on Tuesday. "It would require not just parliamentary involvement ... but primary legislation," lawyer James Eadie told the Supreme Court. "The reason it requires primary legislation is (because) you are being asked to declare ... unlawful the exercise of the prerogative power to give Article 50 notice as the first step in the process." The government is appealing to the Supreme Court against a High Court ruling last month that it could not invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which begins a two-year exit process from the European Union, without parliamentary assent. (Reporting by Michael Holden, editing by Estelle Shirbon)