Brexit legal advice: UK govt faces serious constitutional questions

The advice is sure to alarm many Brexiters, who have long insisted that the UK should have a unilateral right to end the backstop

After a bitter battle in which ministers were found to be in contempt of parliament, the UK’s attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, has published his legal advice to the government on Brexit.

At first reading at least, the advice seems to be sound. It accurately captures the legal situation surrounding the Irish backstop – which is that a “single customs territory”, with its rights and obligations for Northern Ireland and Great Britain, will exist from the end of the Brexit transition period “unless and until” it is superseded by a subsequent agreement between