What has Geoffrey Cox said about Brexit legal advice and how will this affect the vote tonight?

THE Government's top lawyer has torpedoed her chances of winning over rebel MPs, by warning that the "risk remains unchanged" of the backstop lasting indefinitely if trade talks break down.

Here's all we know about what Geoffrey Cox said about Brexit legal advice, and how it could affect the vote tonight.

What has Geoffrey Cox said about Brexit legal advice?

The Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC is a member of Theresa May's Cabinet and the chief legal adviser to HM Government.

Last night in Strasbourg, the PM worked until midnight to work out last-minute tweaks to the Irish backstop plan intended to allow the UK to exit European control.

In a last-ditch bid to stave off Commons humiliation, an exhausted-sounding Mrs May told MPs today: "If this vote is not passed tonight, if this deal is not passed, Brexit may be lost.

However, this morning, Geoffrey Cox torpedoed her chances of winning over rebel MPs - warning that the "risk remains unchanged" of the backstop lasting indefinitely if trade talks break down.

He told MPs that changes secured by Mrs May "reduce the risk" that the UK could be trapped indefinitely in the backstop, but do not remove it altogether.

The Attorney General said the Strasbourg agreements "reduce the risk that the UK could be indefinitely and involuntarily detained" in the backstop if the EU fails to show good faith in negotiating a trade deal to replace it.

He also warned that the question of whether a satisfactory agreement on a future UK/EU relationship can be reached remains "a political judgement".

And he said "the legal risk remains unchanged" that the UK may have "no internationally lawful means" of leaving the backstop without EU agreement.

In a statement to the Commons, Mr Cox told MPs: "There is no ultimate unilateral right out of this arrangement. The risk of that continues."

How could it affect the vote tonight?

John Whittingdale, a Brexit-supporting Conservative lawmaker, said the attorney general's advice was "pretty terminal" for May's plan.

Another Brexiteer, Owen Paterson, tweeted that Cox's opinion made it "brutally clear" that nothing had changed.

And the so-called Star Chamber convened by the Leave-backing European Research Group found that agreements reached by the PM in 11th-hour talks in Strasbourg did not deliver the legally-binding changes the Commons has demanded.

The Democratic Unionist Party - which props up Mrs May's minority administration in the Commons - said its 10 MPs would vote against the latest deal as "sufficient progress has not been achieved at this time".

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Cox had confirmed that "no significant changes" had been secured in two months of negotiations and the Government's strategy was "in tatters".

Charles Walker, vice chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, warned that defeat in the second "meaningful vote" on Tuesday evening would lead to a general election.
He told BBC Radio 4's World At One: "If it doesn't go through tonight, as sure as night follows day, there will be a general election within a matter of days or weeks.

"It is not sustainable, the current situation in Parliament."

What else has Geoffrey Cox said?

Geoffrey Cox has this afternoon insisted the "entire continent of Europe" will be allowed to move on if MPs back Theresa May's Brexit deal.

The Attorney General faced Eurosceptic opposition as he made a last-ditch plea in the Commons while answering questions about his legal advice on the effect of changes secured by the PM.
Mr Cox said politicians have a "political decision" to make on the deal after confirming the changes reduce the risk that the UK could be trapped in the Northern Ireland backstop.

However, this outcome has not been entirely removed.
Speaking in the Commons, he said: "The question now is, do we assume responsibilities as a House and allow not only this country - yearning as it is - for us to move on, but the entire continent of Europe.
"To do that, the time has come now to vote for this deal."