Secret Brexit legal advice is finally revealed

Britain could be stuck in the Irish backstop forever if trade talks with the EU break down, the Prime Minister was warned in secret legal advice.

The advice drawn up for the Cabinet was finally published today after MPs voted to find the Government in contempt of Parliament for the first time yesterday - one of three defeats last night in the worst day in the Commons for a PM in 40 years.  

Both Leave and Remain MPs demanded the secret advice amid suspicion Mr Cox gave a bleaker assessment of how the deal works privately to Cabinet than he revealed publicly on Monday. 

The new version paints a much starker and unspun outline of the legal risks of the backstop but is not materially different to what Mr Cox had said earlier.

Attorney General Geoffrey Cox's advice said the backstop is 'intended to subsist even when negotiations have broken down' - meaning it has been designed to last forever if talks fail.

Mr Cox said 'despite statements in the Protocol it is not intended to be permanent and the clear intention of the parties that it should be replaced by alternative, permanent arrangements, in international law the protocol would endure indefinitely until a superseding agreement took its place'.   

The Attorney said it was impossible for Britain to escape the backstop unilaterally and a political deal with Brussels was the only way out. 

Earlier, MPs were warned by Commons leader Andrea Leadsom they would live to 'regret' forcing the Government to publish the letter.   

The latest blow to Mrs May comes after yesterday's historic triple defeat in the Commons lobbies.

The Prime Minister face MPs again today as she returned to the Despatch Box for PMQs. In the worst defeat, 26 Tory rebels sided with Labour to push through an amendment that would let MPs step in if her deal is defeated next Tuesday.

  

The five-day Brexit deal debate will continue this afternoon after it adjourned at just after 1am this morning.





MailOnline