Theresa May to urge MPs to get on with Brexit amid fiery row over legal advice

Theresa May will urge MPs to get on with Brexit on Tuesday amid accusations the government is in contempt of Parliament for refusing to publish the full legal advice on her deal.

A row broke out in the Commons on Monday on the eve of the debate on the Prime Minister’s EU withdrawal plan, culminating with the government’s top lawyer dramatically telling opposition MPs to “grow up” in a fiery clash.

Geoffrey Cox delivered the put-down as he faced repeated accusations of ignoring the will of MPs in an extremely rare appearance at the despatch box by the Attorney General.

The government is under attack for not making public the full legal advice provided to the Cabinet by Cox, despite the Commons passing such a motion last month.

Cox claimed that publishing such advice would not be in the public interest, but his argument failed to win over even some of his Tory colleagues, including leading Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg.

After the North East Somerset MP called for the document to be published, Cox – who treated the Commons to a theatrical performance – said: “I am convinced that to disclose any advice that might have been given would be fundamentally contrary to the interests of this country.

“It’s no use the baying and shouting of MPs opposite. What I am trying to do is guard the public interest, that’s all, and it is time they grew up and got real!”

Cox’s attack, delivered with his trademark booming voice, did little to calm the anger, and Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer published an open letter to the Commons speaker calling for a debate on whether the government was in contempt of parliament.

As well as the debate over the legal advice, Cox was repeatedly pressed on whether the UK would be able to unilaterally exit the so-called ‘backstop’ arrangement it was planning to enter with the EU if trade talks broke down.

The arrangement would see the UK follow the EU’s customs union and Single Market rules to prevent a hard border with Ireland.

Cox, who campaigned for Leave in the 2016 referendum, told MPs May’s deal had “unattractive elements, unsatisfactory elements”, but said the backstop proposal was as uncomfortable for the EU as for the UK.

He added: "Let me make no bones about the Northern Ireland protocol – it will subsist, we are indefinitely committed to it if it came into force. There is no point in my trying, or the Government trying, to disguise that fact.

“The truth however is what is the political imperative of either entering it or not entering it and that is a calculated equation of risk that each member of this House is going to have to weigh up.”

Opening the debate on the withdrawal deal on Tuesday afternoon, May is expected to say: "The British people want us to get on with a deal that honours the referendum and allows us to come together again as a country, whichever way we voted.

"This is the deal that delivers for the British people.”

MPs are due to vote on the deal on Tuesday December 11.