Ministers facing contempt of Parliament call after failing to publish full Brexit legal advice

Ministers could face contempt of Parliament proceedings after failing to publish the full legal advice given to them on Brexit.



Labour warned that the Government was "treading on very thin ice indeed" after releasing a 52-page summary of the document presented to the Cabinet by attorney general Geoffrey Cox.

Parliament passed a motion last month calling on the Government to produce the full advice provided by the leading QC on Theresa May's Brexit deal.

Commons Speaker John Bercow warned ministers that if they fail to comply, they could be held in contempt.

He said: "I will decide - and I will not linger - whether there is an arguable case that a contempt has been committed and therefore whether an appropriate motion should be put urgently to the House."

But just hours before Mr Cox is due to be grilled by MPs in the Commons, the Government instead produced a "full reasoned position statement" of the legal advice - far less than the full document.

A Labour source said: "This document falls far short of what Parliament demanded. It is not the full legal advice. We will wait to hear the attorney general’s statement in the Commons this afternoon and then decide how we intend to proceed. However, ministers should be aware that they are treading on very thin ice indeed."

It is understoofd that if Mr Cox does not announce a climbdown, Labour will push for formal contempt of Parliament proceedings to take place.

Meanwhile, the document is set to anger Brexiteers after it confirmed that the UK could remain in the so-called "backstop" arrangement designed to avoid a hard border in Ireland indefinitely under Mrs May's deal.

Under the scheme, the UK and EU would remain in a customs arrangement until a long-term trade deal is struck, doing away with the need for border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Tory euroscpetics have demanded that there must be a way for the UK to leave the arrangement unilaterally to allow the Government to strike trade deals with other countries.

But Mr Cox's advice says the backstop "will continue to apply unless and until it is superseded" - meaning the UK could stay in indefinitely.