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More on the attorney general's legal advice around Mrs May's deal - which was rejected again by MPs on Tuesday.

Could Geoffrey Cox be about to draw on the Vienna Convention? One SNP MP warns that could destroy any notion in Brussels that the UK is acting in good faith.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Chancellor Philip Hammond suggested that Attorney General Geoffrey Cox should consider the opinions of other eminent lawyers on the Irish backstop.

"The attorney general's legal view is clearly very important and this is a very complex agreement and many other eminent lawyers are coming out with views and interpretations.

"And I'm sure the attorney general will want to consider very carefully all the evidence, all the qualified opinion that there is around this issue."

Adam Fleming
Brussels reporter

The top British lawyer at the European Court of Justice has said the UK could extend Article 50 without having to take part in the European Parliament elections in May.

Eleanor Sharpston is one of the Advocates-General, a senior legal advisor.

In a series of tweets, external, she said the mandates of existing UK MEPs could be temporarily extended or that MPs could be nominated to sit as MEPs, or there could be another legal fix.

“I am not advocating any particular mechanism or any particular action. But if the political will to agree a longer Article 50 extension is there, a legal mechanism can be found to accommodate that desire,” she wrote.

This contradicts the EU’s official legal position that the UK would be obliged to take part in the elections if it’s still a member state on the 23 May, which was set out by Jean-Claude Juncker in a letter on Monday.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Conservative party

Conservative MP Sam Gyimah resigned as universities minister in December saying he couldn't support Theresa May's Brexit deal.

He voted against the government last night and he believes that a delay beyond the European elections is the right thing to consider in spite of the difficulties it raises.

"The decision we're making now is a decision that will affect us for the rest of our lives in this country.

"We either go out with a deal we know is bad, because we can't negotiate something around the European elections - or we say let's pause and reflect and let's deal with the European election issue as part of the negotiations.

"I would say to my constituents I would rather that we actually paused and did what was right for our long-term interests."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Stephen Hammond's claim earlier that some ministers were effectively given permission to abstain last night is put to his (near) namesake, Chancellor Philip Hammond.

The chancellor says the government was "thrown off" by the fact that the so-called 'Spelman amendment' to its main motion was approved beforehand.

This means that Tory MPs did not have the chance to vote for or against the government's main motion as expected, he says.

In the circumstances, some members felt that the "best way forward" was to abstain, he says.

He says discussions are ongoing to win over opponents of the PM's deal, but adds: "We also have to look at other ways in which the House of Commons can express a view."

There have been reports that Theresa May could win round Brexiteers and the Democratic Unionist Party to her deal if Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general, can give clearer legal advice about how the UK could withdraw from an international treaty.

But, in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the chancellor was staying tight-lipped about whether Mr Cox had more to offer them.

BBC Breakfast

MPs will vote later on whether the UK should ask the EU to delay Brexit.

The government's proposing to submit a request to Brussels for a one-off postponement of Article 50 until the end of June.

Mairead McGuiness, an Irish MEP and vice president of the European parliament, says: "I do not think the leaders are looking at that prolongation in the hope of a change of mind [on Brexit].

"There's huge respect for the outcome of the referendum, there's a regret about it, but we have moved on to a very different place here.

"We're trying to deal with other, many big challenges - and that is something that will take time."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen says "a scorched earth policy" is destroying all options except the prime minister's withdrawal agreement.

He tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme this leaves the options of "a huge delay" to Brexit or a withdrawal agreement which is "a sort of Hotel California Brexit where we'll check in but we'll never leave".

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and DUP leader Arlene Foster appear to be in talks to find a deal that works for both Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

Stephen Hammond, one of the ministers who defied government voting orders last night by abstaining, says he has not been asked to leave his job as a health minister.

He denies that he was given assurances beforehand that if he abstained - rather that vote against - he would keep his job, but says he believes "that some colleagues were”.

Yesterday, he adds, was a “day of many contradictions”.