The UK’s most senior judge has revealed the tensions in the build-up to the Brexit appeal at the UK Supreme Court earlier this year.

In the Miller case last November, three judges in the High Court held that parliamentary authority was needed to trigger Article 50 and begin the Brexit proceedings – a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in January.

Speaking after the court’s historic first sitting in Edinburgh, Lord Neuberger said last week that the result of the Brexit case appeared “to have taken the journalists and politicians by surprise”. The Daily Mail’s headline, he said, had “disturbing echoes of a very similar front page of a 1933 Nazi newspaper”.

He added that following the media furore, he and the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, were “in a bit of a bind”.

“The Lord Chief Justice couldn’t speak out as he had been one of the three justices. I couldn’t speak out because the case was on its way to the Supreme Court and the Lord Chancellor couldn’t speak out — well the Lord Chancellor didn’t speak out.”

Uniquely to date, all 11 of the Supreme Court’s justices heard the appeal. Lord Neuberger decided on this, he revealed, partly to ensure there was no speculation that the result would have swung the other way had fewer justices heard the appeal.

He said: “I must confess that I also thought that if even nine had sat there could be a 5-4 split which could result in speculation – which would not be very good for the court – that if the other two had sat it would have been 6-5 the other way.”

And while Lord Neuberger thought he had been “quite cool about the whole procedure”, he remarked that he could feel the weight of the case in court.

“It’s only when I heard myself reading out the statement in court I could hear my voice quavering a bit in my throat, I was quite nervous. And it was because of the public pressure, which was quite significant I have to say.”

By Kapil Summan