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Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has warned Brexiteers they are "playing with people's lives" as he backed Theresa May's Brexit deal.

The Tory MP - dubbed 'Tory Gandalf' because of his booming tone and Shakespearian turn of phrase - made the warning in a bid to stress the complexity of extricating the UK from the EU.

"You are not children in the playground," he said - turning round to address Tory MPs on the back benches.

"You are legislators and it is your job."

Speaking at the beginning of a day-long debate on Mrs May's deal, ahead of the 'meaningful vote' this evening, he added: "You…we are playing with people’s lives."

He went on to illustrate the issue with a medical metaphor.

He said: "We are debating the effects of legal continuity. 45 of legal integration has brought our two legal systems into a situation where they are organically linked.

"And it is the same in medical terms - to appeal to those who have a medical background - as if we were to separate from a living organism, with all its arteries and veins, a central part. A living organ from this body politic.

"I say to the house, we cannot underestimate the complexity of what we are embarked upon doing."

He said every option for an 'orderly' exit from the EU would require a withdrawal agreement - and that the EU said this was the only possible form of the deal.

He said: "The orderly exit from the European Union would always require a withdrawal agreement along these lines. No alternative option currently being canvassed in the house would not require this withdrawal agreement and now the backstop.

"So let us be clear, whatever solution were to be fashioned, if this motion were defeated and this deal defeated, this withdrawal agreement will have to return in much the same form with much the same content - and therefore there is no serious or credible objection that has been advanced by any party to the withdrawal agreement."

(Image: Parliment TV)

MPs are expected to start voting on the deal at around 7pm tonight, with the result coming in between 8pm and 8.15pm, depending on how many amendments make it to a vote.

The Attorney General urged MPs to back the Prime Minister's Brexit deal because the Commons needs to come to a "consensus".

Mr Cox said he was backing the Withdrawal Agreement for "wholly pragmatic reasons" as he opened the final day of debate before tonight's crunch vote.

He began by saying he was "conscious the last time I had a prolonged outing in this House the verdict did not go well", after he was found in contempt of Parliament, and intended to "adopt an approach more to the House's taste" this time round.

Mr Cox praised a speech on Monday night in the debate by Labour MP for Gedling Vernon Coaker, who had talked about the "value of compromise".

The Cabinet minister said: "In the past, when this country has faced these kinds of grave obstacles and impediments to finding a way forward, the members of this place have found the resource within themselves to achieve a compromise and to subordinate their ideal preference solution that they would like to see for that which commands a degree of consensus."

He added: "It is precisely for that reason that I support the Withdrawal Agreement, not because I like every element of it but for wholly pragmatic reasons. It is the necessary means to secure our orderly departure and unlock our future outside the European Union."

Mr Cox compared the transition period to an "airlock" on a spaceship or a submarine.

"It's quite simple. An airlock enables the human vody to adjust to the new pressure it will face when it exits the airlock.

"And this period allows the transition and adjustment of this country to enter into the bright new world that we will enter when we leave the EU."