Labour demands full Brexit advice from May

Britain's Theresa May is confident she'll still be prime minister after next week's Brexit vote as opposition parties demanded the AG's full legal advice.

Prime Minister Theresa May in parliament

Source: AAP

British Prime Minister Theresa May has brushed aside questions about whether she will resign if her Brexit deal is rejected by parliament next week, saying she's confident she'll still have a job after the crucial vote.

May is battling to persuade MPs to support the divorce agreement between Britain and the European Union when the House of Commons votes on December 11.

Opposition parties say their representatives will vote against the deal, and so have dozens of MPs from May's Conservative Party.

Defeat would leave the UK facing a messy, economically damaging "no-deal" Brexit on March 29 and could topple the prime minister, her government, or both.

May predicted on Monday that despite the blowback "I will still have a job in two weeks' time.

"My job is making sure that we do what the public asked us to: We leave the EU but we do it in a way that is good for them," she told broadcaster ITV.

The Conservative prime minister has consistently refused to say what she plans to do if, as is widely predicted, the British parliament rejects the deal her government reached with the EU.

"I'm focusing on ... getting that vote and getting the vote over the line," she said.

Politicians on both sides of Britain's EU membership debate oppose the agreement that May struck with the bloc - pro-Brexit ones because it keeps Britain bound closely to the EU, and pro-EU politicians because it erects barriers between the UK and its biggest trading partner.

May's opponents argue that Britain can renegotiate the deal for better terms.

But the British government and the EU insist the agreement, which took a year and a half to negotiate, is the only one on the table and rejecting it would mean leaving the bloc without a deal.

"There is no Plan B," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

May's government is also facing a battle in parliament over confidential advice from the country's top law officer about the Brexit deal.

On Monday, the government published a 43-page document outlining Attorney-General Geoffrey Cox's legal opinion, but opposition parties demanded the attorney-general's full, original advice.

Opposition parties wrote on Monday to the Speaker of the House of Commons, accusing the government of being in contempt of parliament by refusing to comply.

The most contentious legal issue arising from the Brexit agreement is how Britain could get out of a "backstop" provision that would keep the country in a customs union with the EU to guarantee an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The backstop is intended as a temporary measure, but pro-Brexit MPs say it could leave Britain tied to the EU indefinitely and unable to strike new trade deals around the world.

The legal advice confirmed that Britain can't unilaterally opt out of the backstop, which requires either an agreement with the EU or a decision by an arbitration panel.

In a statement to parliament, Cox confirmed that "there is no unilateral right of either party to terminate this arrangement."

Cox said he would have preferred that not to be the case, but that he supported the divorce deal as "a sensible compromise".

"The divorce and separation of nations from long and intimate unions, just as of human beings, stirs high emotion and calls for wisdom and forbearance," he said.


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Source: AAP



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