Irish Brexit backstop goes on indefinitely, says attorney generalThe UK is “indefinitely committed” to the Irish backstop if it comes into force, the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, has told MPs as he explained to them the legal advice he gave the government on the planned Brexit deal.
Answering questions from MPs in what Downing Street said was the first such appearance by an attorney general in the Commons in decades, Cox also said there was no unilateral right for the UK to pull out of the backstop, which would come into force to prevent a hard Irish border if no permanent trade deal was reached.
“Let me make no bones about the Northern Ireland protocol. It will subsist, we are indefinitely committed to it if it came into force,” Cox said. “There is no point in my trying or the government trying to disguise that fact.”
Explaining the basics of the legal advice, released as a document earlier in the day, Cox went through contentious areas such as the continued role of the European court of justice, and the role of the backstop.
On the latter, he said: “There is, therefore, no unilateral right for either party to terminate this arrangement,” prompting one Conservative MP to yell: “So it’s a trap!”