Her back to the wall on Brexit, Theresa May turned to her legal adviser to rescu...
BRUSSELS - Her back to the wall on Brexit, Theresa May turned to her legal adviser to rescue her deal with the EU - only to see Geoffrey Cox deliver it a mortal blow as parliament voted down the treaty for a second time.
Some in the EU accused the barrister, who unlike May had campaigned for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, of sabotaging a deal which many fellow Conservatives believe binds Britain too tightly to EU rules. Some in Britain commended him for sticking honestly to his legal guns, despite political pressure.
If May was peeved by Cox saying on Tuesday that commitments he had himself wrung from the EU were not enough to end a risk of Britain being trapped in EU rules after leaving the bloc, she gave little away. Cox just did his job in offering independent legal advice, aides to the premier insisted on Wednesday.
But after several weeks of his own shuttle diplomacy, and hours after May had declared herself satisfied with a tweaked package after a late-night dash to Strasbourg, Cox said on Tuesday that, despite some improvement, the legal risk remained that Britain might be unable to get out of the backstop.
“Barnier’s people were expecting to work on May’s demands,” one senior EU diplomat said. “Then Cox showed up with a completely different way and said ‘it’s my way or no way’.The publication on Sunday of an interview which Cox given days earlier to a British newspaper, also angered Brussels.
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