Brexit backstop legal risk 'unchanged': UK attorney general
The legal risk of Britain being stuck in EU trade arrangements after Brexit fundamentally "remains unchanged", the UK government's chief legal advisor said Tuesday.
Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said last-minute new agreements "reduce the risk" of Britain being "indefinitely and involuntarily" held in the so-called Irish border backstop.
However, "the legal risk remains unchanged" that Britain, without being able to prove bad faith on behalf of the European Union, would have no legal means of exiting the backstop without the agreement of Brussels.
Prime Minister Theresa May rushed to Strasbourg on Monday for last-minute talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in a bid to salvage the Brexit deal, with British MPs set to vote Tuesday on whether to accept the withdrawal agreement.
The two sides then announced a three-part package of legally-binding changes to the old deal.
The backstop, designed to keep the land border between the UK and Ireland free-flowing after Brexit, would see Britain stick to EU trade arrangements unless a new trade deal is struck.
Britain could not unilaterally pull out - something that caused Brexit-backing MPs to vote down the deal in...