Brexit: Key group rejects Theresa May's revised deal

A key group of Brexiteer Tory MPs say they will be voting against Theresa May's Brexit deal in the Commons later.

The European Research Group say they are not convinced by legal assurances secured by the PM in 11th hour talks with EU officials.

Mrs May had hoped the group, which helped vote down her deal in January, would change their minds.

It comes after the attorney general said the risk of being tied to the EU after Brexit "remains unchanged".

But, Geoffrey Cox added, the new assurances secured by the PM did "reduce the risk that the United Kingdom could be indefinitely and involuntarily detained" in the Irish backstop if talks on the two sides future relationship broke down due to "bad faith" by the EU.

He defined "bad faith" as a "pattern of refusing to accept reasonable proposals" on the Irish backstop.

And the question of whether a satisfactory post-Brexit deal on a permanent trading relationship can be reached remained "a political judgment".

ERG chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg said: "We've always been able to ask to leave the backstop, that is not in any sense an improvement or a development."

In a statement, the group said: "In the light of our own legal analysis and others we do not recommend accepting the government's motion today."

In his advice, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said "the legal risk remains unchanged" that if a post-Brexit trade agreement can not be reached due to "intractable differences", the UK would have "no internationally lawful means" of leaving the backstop without EU agreement.

In a statement to the Commons, Mr Cox later said: "Were such a situation to occur, let me make it clear, the legal risk as I set it out in my letter of November 13 remains unchanged."