One cabinet source said the prime minister had indicated at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting that only a summary of the legal advice – underpinning the final backstop proposal – would be made available to its members. The source said that Michael Gove challenged her and demanded the full legal advice be provided to ministers, prompting concern in Downing Street as to how to respond. Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said the advice must be released to MPs so they could scrutinise the document. This, or an amendment to a bill, remain options for extracting the legal advice, but it was understood Labour wanted to first await the government’s response. Brexiter Tories fear that without a clear exit, it could be used to keep the UK in a customs union permanently.

Source: The Guardian November 07, 2018 20:32 UTC