The government will publish its full legal advice on Theresa May’s Brexit deal today after MPs found it in contempt of parliament for failing to do so.
The Attorney General Geoffrey Cox sparked a constitutional crisis by refusing to publish in full a summary of the advice given to ministers, arguing it would not be in the national interest, despite a binding vote in parliament requiring him to do so.
In a day of high political drama that saw the government lose two crucial votes, the Commons supported a motion backed by six opposition parties demanding full disclosure, by 311 votes to 293.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer, who tabled the motion, said yesterday's vote had “huge constitutional and political significance” and it was “unprecedented” for ministers to have been found in contempt.
Following the vote, the Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom, told MPs the full Brexit legal advice would be published today. She also said she would refer the issue to Commons Privileges Committee to establish the decision's constitutional repercussions, which The Daily Telegraph says could have “far-reaching implications”.
The committee will decide which ministers should be held accountable for this failure and what sanction to apply, with options ranging from a reprimand to a potential suspension from the House of Commons.
The last MP to be expelled for contempt was back in 1947, “however, a government has never fallen foul of the offence, with most backing down when threatened”, says the Telegraph.
“What type of sanctions could follow, and which ministers are at risk, now rests with MPs, although Labour sources have indicated that they will focus their efforts on Cox”, says the paper.
“To use the posh term, it is the legislature trying to take over the executive, and this is what chills some spines in No 10,” says the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. “With MPs on the Tory benches as well as the opposition looking for ever more arcane ways of tying ministers up in knots, there is a sense whatever happens next Tuesday, what we are seeing is the gumming up of the government, maybe for good”.
The Dominic Grieve amendment
Following the vote, in what The Independent described as a second “humiliation” in as many hours, Tory rebels inflicted a further defeat on the prime minister by backing an amendment put forward by the former attorney general, Dominic Grieve, that would give MPs control over Brexit if her deal is voted down next week.
MPs voted by a majority of 22 to ensure the Commons gets a chance to vote for 'plan B' Brexit option in January if Theresa May’s deal gets voted down next Tuesday.
Putting an unprecedented day in Parliament in context, the Daily Telegraph’s political editor Gordon Rayner tweeted that: “Theresa May has lost as many votes in one day as Gordon Brown did in his entire premiership.
ITV or bust
There was yet more bad new for the prime minister, after the BBC withdrew its offer to hold a Sunday night debate between her and Jeremy Corbyn.
Downing Street had favoured the format proposed by the BBC, while the Labour leader had thrown his support behind rival ITV.
It means Theresa May will have to agree to the ITV format or backtrack on her pledge to debate Corbyn, a mistake she will be reluctant to repeat following last year’s general election debate debacle where she was the only party leader not to appear.
