Enemies of the People (headline)

The court had ruled on the question of whether the Constitution of the United Kingdom permitted the government to use the royal prerogative to invoke Article 50, or whether it would need to be authorised by an explicit act of Parliament to do so.

The headline, written by James Slack and approved by editor Paul Dacre,[2] was in response to the ruling of the High Court of England and Wales in the Miller case that the government would need to gain the consent of Parliament before it could trigger Article 50 and exit the European Union (EU).

[8] The Independent Press Standards Organisation received over 1,000 complaints about the piece, claiming it violated numerous Codes of Conduct including inaccuracy, harassment and discrimination.

[11] In response to the criticism of the High Court ruling by newspapers, including the Daily Mail, the Secretary of State for Justice, Liz Truss issued a three line statement defending the independence and impartiality of the judiciary more than a day after being asked by the Bar Council to comment.

[22] On 19 April 2017, following the Prime Minister's decision to call a snap election, the Daily Mail ran a similar Brexit-related headline, "Crush the Saboteurs".

[25] In November 2023, Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith reacted to the Supreme Court's blocking of the Rwanda asylum plan by sharing an image of the headline[26] accompanied by the caption "We've been here before".