MPs’ fury as legal advice on
Opening page of Attorney General Geoffrey Cox’s legal advice to Prime Minister Theresa May on the EU exit deal she struck with Brussels THERESA May’s Brexit deal was branded “economically mad” yesterday after ministers were forced to publish secret legal advice that revealed her plan could leave the UK trapped “indefinitely” by Brussels. Britain faces being stuck in “protracted and repeating rounds of negotiations” for many years, with no lawful power to exit arrangements designed to stop a hard Irish border, documents drawn up by the Government’s legal supremo warned. Goods being traded between Great Britain and Northern Ireland could be subject to customs checks, effectively creating a border down the Irish Sea.
The Democratic Unionist Party said the advice was “devastating” and savaged the Prime Minister, who relies on DUP support in Parliament, for failing to keep her promises.
The DUP’s deputy leader, Nigel Dodds, said: “This is totally unacceptable and economically mad in that it will be erecting internal economic and trade barriers within the United Kingdom.”
Mr Dodds said backstop plans, designed to stop a hard border in Ireland, must be defeated.
He added: “This advice concisely sets out the stark reality of the operation of the backstop.
“Its publication demonstrates how the Prime Minister has failed to abide by the commitments she gave in that the United Kingdom as a whole would leave the European Union and that she would ensure there would be no customs or regulatory divergence within the United Kingdom.”
Conservative Marcus Fysh, one of more than 100 Tory MPs preparing to oppose Mrs May’s exit package when it goes before the Commons next week, said the legal advice confirmed the deal was “totally unacceptable”.
He said: “I don’t see how any member of Parliament can think it’s appropriate to vote for the withdrawal agreement.
“I’m astonished the Government has even brought it this far.”
The six pages of legal advice by Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC were released to MPs a day after the House of Commons found the Government in contempt of Parliament for trying to keep it secret.
Clashes
The Scottish National Party’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford accused Mrs May of “concealing the facts on her Brexit deal” during clashes at Prime Minister’s Questions.
He claimed the release of the legal advice showed that the Prime Minister “has been misleading the House, inadvertently or otherwise”.
Mrs May insisted the advice was “no different” to the statement made by Mr Cox on Monday.
She told MPs there was “no unilateral right” to pull out of the backstop, but said it was “not the intention of either party” that the backstop should be used in the first place.
Brexiteers said the documents released by the Government still did not contain the full legal advice given by Mr Cox to the Cabinet.
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom warned MPs that they would “live to regret” voting to force ministers into releasing the usually confidential guidelines.
She said: “Going forward, not only will Government ministers be very careful about what they ask law officers to give advice on, but law officers Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC themselves will be very reluctant to give any advice to Government that they might then see published on the front pages of the newspapers, so it’s the principle of the thing.
“And frankly, I think any parliamentarian who wants at some point in the future to be in government is going to live to regret their vote last night.”
Mr Cox found that the protocol setting out the terms of the backstop “does not provide for a mechanism that is likely to enable the UK lawfully to exit the UK-wide customs union without a subsequent agreement”.
He said: “This remains the case