Govt. refuses to publish Brexit legal advice

Today the Speaker has allowed the House to debate a cross-party motion on whether the Government is in contempt of Parliament for failing to publish the final, full legal advice that Attorney General Geoffrey Cox gave to the Government on the Brexit deal. The House of Commons passed a motion requiring the Government to do so on November 13th. The Government chose not to oppose that motion, because they do not have a majority and were worried that they might lose the vote. Instead, they have chosen not to oppose the motion but simply to ignore a decision of the Commons.Now the Government says it isn’t in the public interest to publish the advice and are refusing to comply with the instructions of the Commons. It’s clear the Government think they can ignore the will of the House and disregard binding votes of the House of Commons, for their own political gain. The issue isn’t whether or not it’s in the public interest to publish the legal advice. The issue is why the Government now thinks they can ignore Parliament altogether and do what they want. You can see my question to the Attorney General in the video below.

Posted by Maria Eagle MP on Tuesday, December 4, 2018