Attorney General looks to prevent Britain being ‘trapped’ in a customs union, says cabinet minister

Britain’s attorney general is looking to make legally binding changes to the Irish border backstop to ensure Britain is not "trapped" in a customs union, according to communities secretary James Brokenshire.

Brokenshire said Geoffrey Cox, the UK’s top government lawyer, is determined to secure a revision to Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal that prevents the backstop holding Britain in a customs union indefinitely.

Read more: EU ready to give UK more guarantees Irish backstop is temporary

“The attorney general continues with his work to ensure we get legally-binding changes to ensure that we are not locked in the backstop,” Brokenshire told the BBC this morning.

“That is fundamentally what this issue is about – ensuring that we are not trapped in this backstop arrangement which has caused so much concern, so much anxiety amongst my colleagues and MPs across the House,” he said.

“The negotiations are at a critical and sensitive point. People just need to have this little bit of patience to see how this now comes forward.”

Over the weekend the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc is prepared to offer more guarantees to the UK that the Irish border backstop is only intended to be temporary.

“We know that there are misgivings in Britain that the backstop could keep Britain forever connected to the EU,” Michel Barnier said in an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper.

“This is not the case. And we are ready to give further guarantees, assurances and clarifications that the backstop should only be temporary.”

The backstop is a contentious issue in the proposed deal and a number of MPs have called for the temporary nature of it to be legally binding.

Read more: May will travel to Brussels with the EU still not budging on the backstop

Barnier also said that the EU's guarantees over the backstop could come as part of a wider political agreement outlining what Britain's relationship with the bloc looks like post-Brexit.

May has said that if her withdrawal agreement is rejected for a second time, with the vote due to take place by March 12, then there will be a vote on whether to request the EU delay Brexit.