Theresa May’s Brexit deal will tie Britain down forever, bombshell legal advice reveals

BRITAIN will be trapped by Theresa May's Brexit deal forever if MPs approve it next week, bombshell legal advice revealed today.

Ministers have been told that once the withdrawal agreement with the EU is signed, the UK will never be able to escape the deal without breaking the law.

And Commons bosses have concluded the proposed "backstop" would stop Britain making trade deals around the world in a separate legal document.

Today a 50-page summary of the legal advice provided by Attorney General Geoffrey Cox was released - laying out the true effect of Mrs May's deal.

But opposition MPs tonight teamed up with Tory Brexiteers to try and force him to hand over the full dossier of advice he has given the PM - and threatened to hold him in contempt of Parliament.

One damning paragraph of the legal summary published today reads: "The agreement does not contain any provision on its termination.

"In the absence of such a provision, it is not possible under international law for a party to withdraw from the agreement unilaterally."

That means Britain can't ditch the withdrawal agreement without the EU's permission.

The advice is a blow for Brexiteers such as Michael Gove who want to sign up to the deal now but change the UK's position in future.

The document published today also suggests it will be almost impossible for Britain to quit the hated "Irish backstop".

Mrs May has promised an "independent review" which will allow the UK to end the backstop if trade talks with the EU break down.

But the legal advice claims Britain would have to show a "clear basis" of wrongdoing by Brussels in order to leave the arrangement - a much higher bar.

Brexit-backing Tory Nadine Dorries blasted: "No MP with a shred of respect for the democratic process can support this deal."

Today Mr Cox gave a statement in the Commons where he confirmed that only the summary advice will be published instead of the full documents, said to run to thousands of pages.

Addressing the issue of the backstop - which will keep Britain in the customs union if there's no other way to protect the Irish border - the Attorney General said: "There is no unilateral right for either party to terminate this arrangement.

"This means that if no superseding agreement can be reached within the implementation period, the protocol would be activated and in international law would subsist, even if negotiations had broken down.

"How likely that is to happen is a political question, to which the answer will no doubt depend partly on the extent to which it is in either party's interests to remain indefinitely within its arrangements."

He added: "We are indefinitely committing to it if it came into force. There is no point in the Government trying to hide that fact."

But he insisted the backstop wouldn't end up becoming permanent - because it would be against European law, so Britain could sue the EU if Brussels refused to repeal it.

MPs in the Commons lined up to attack Mr Cox for keeping his full advice secret - the DUP's Nigel Dodds said it was "a deeply unattractive, unsatisfactory presentation" while Jacob Rees-Mogg warned the Government must obey the will of the Commons because Parliament is a "higher authority".

The Attorney General insisted he was free to ignore them because he's acting in the public interest, adding: "It is time they grew up and got real!"

This evening all the opposition parties wrote to Commons Speaker John Bercow, asking him to bring a motion holding the Government in contempt of Parliament.

If the vote - which could take place as soon as tomorrow - is successful, ministers could be banned from attending the Commons.

Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said: "The Government has failed to publish the Attorney General's full and final legal advice to the Cabinet, as ordered by Parliament.

"We have therefore been left with no option but to write to the Speaker of the House of Commons to ask him to launch proceedings of contempt."

And Tom Brake of the Lib Dems claimed Mr Cox had "shown Parliament two learned fingers" by refusing to publish his advice in full.

Last night a separate legal analysis by House of Commons experts warned that the backstop would tie Britain to the EU indefinitely.

It concluded that the mechanism "would be a practical barrier to the UK entering separate trade agreements on goods with third countries".

That would kill off the chances of a trade deal with countries such as the US for as long as the UK remained in the backstop.

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