diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/ui/inspectors/ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.js b/modules/ve-mw/ui/inspectors/ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.js
index 5e41266ebd..651ba6b14c 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/ui/inspectors/ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/ui/inspectors/ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.js
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.static.linkTargetInputWidget = ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidg
  * @returns {ve.dm.MWInternalLinkAnnotation|ve.dm.MWExternalLinkAnnotation|null}
  */
 ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.prototype.getAnnotationFromText = function ( target ) {
-	var title;
+	var title = mw.Title.newFromText( target );
 
 	// Figure out if this is an internal or external link
 	if ( ve.init.platform.getExternalLinkUrlProtocolsRegExp().test( target ) ) {
@@ -59,13 +59,12 @@ ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.prototype.getAnnotationFromText = function ( target ) {
 				'href': target
 			}
 		} );
-	} else if ( ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.static.legalTitle.test( target ) ) {
+	} else if ( title ) {
 		// Internal link
 		// TODO: In the longer term we'll want to have autocompletion and existence and validity
 		// checks using AJAX
-		title = mw.Title.newFromText( target );
 
-		if ( title && ( title.getNamespaceId() === 6 || title.getNamespaceId() === 14 ) ) {
+		if ( title.getNamespaceId() === 6 || title.getNamespaceId() === 14 ) {
 			// File: or Category: link
 			// We have to prepend a colon so this is interpreted as a link
 			// rather than an image inclusion or categorization
@@ -80,23 +79,12 @@ ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.prototype.getAnnotationFromText = function ( target ) {
 			}
 		} );
 	} else {
+		// Doesn't look like an external link and mw.Title considered it an illegal value,
+		// for an internal link.
 		return null;
 	}
 };
 
-/* Static Properties */
-
-/**
- * Regular expression matching a valid internal link
- *
- * This is a slightly modified version of the PHP regex
- * - unicode range changed from 0080-00ff to 0080-ffff
- * - added '(#.*)?' to allow section links
- *
- * @type {RegExp}
- */
-ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.static.legalTitle = /^[ %!"$&'()*,\-.\/0-9:;=?@A-Z\\^_`a-z~\u0080-\uFFFF+]+(#.*)?$/;
-
 /* Registration */
 
 ve.ui.inspectorFactory.register( ve.ui.MWLinkInspector );
diff --git a/modules/ve-mw/ui/widgets/ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidget.js b/modules/ve-mw/ui/widgets/ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidget.js
index 6ab9a45cc0..2bbf88cc2c 100644
--- a/modules/ve-mw/ui/widgets/ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidget.js
+++ b/modules/ve-mw/ui/widgets/ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidget.js
@@ -106,9 +106,10 @@ ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidget.prototype.getLookupMenuItemsFromData = function (
 		// If not found, run value through mw.Title to avoid treating a match as a
 		// mismatch where normalisation would make them matching (bug 48476)
 		pageExistsExact = ve.indexOf( this.value, matchingPages ) !== -1,
-		pageExists =
-			pageExistsExact ||
-			ve.indexOf( new mw.Title( this.value ).getPrefixedText(), matchingPages ) !== -1;
+		titleObj = mw.Title.newFromText( this.value ),
+		pageExists = pageExistsExact || (
+			titleObj && ve.indexOf( titleObj.getPrefixedText(), matchingPages ) !== -1
+		);
 
 	// External link
 	if ( ve.init.platform.getExternalLinkUrlProtocolsRegExp().test( this.value ) ) {
@@ -124,7 +125,7 @@ ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidget.prototype.getLookupMenuItemsFromData = function (
 
 	// Internal link
 	if ( !pageExists ) {
-		if ( ve.ui.MWLinkInspector.static.legalTitle.test( this.value ) ) {
+		if ( titleObj ) {
 			items.push( new ve.ui.MenuSectionItemWidget(
 				'newPage',
 				{ '$$': menu$$, 'label': ve.msg( 'visualeditor-linkinspector-suggest-new-page' ) }
@@ -134,6 +135,7 @@ ve.ui.MWLinkTargetInputWidget.prototype.getLookupMenuItemsFromData = function (
 				{ '$$': menu$$, 'rel': 'newPage', 'label': this.value }
 			) );
 		} else {
+			// If no title object could be created, it means the title is illegal
 			item = new ve.ui.MenuSectionItemWidget(
 				'illegalTitle',
 				{ '$$': menu$$, 'label': ve.msg( 'visualeditor-linkinspector-illegal-title' ) }