The Government’s Brexit Deal legal advice has finally been released. The advice largely repeats what Geoffrey Cox told the House on Monday, namely that there is no mechanism that enables the Government to lawfully unilaterally exit the backstop, and that it will endure indefinitely. The Government has admitted all of this before…

Only two really interesting parts stand out. Firstly, the Government admits that under the backstop “GB is essentially treated as a third country by NI for goods passing from GB into NI.” Furthermore, in its conclusion the Government acknowledges there is a legal risk that the UK will become subject to “protracted and repeating rounds of negotiations” as it tries to leave.

Read the six pages of advice in full here…