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Conservative chair of the European Scrutiny Committee Sir Bill Cash says that the legal and constitutional status of Northern Ireland "cannot be put at risk". He says that there are "no internationally lawful means of exit" from the backstop. He states that there is "insufficient protection for Northern Ireland to continue as part of the United Kingdom".

Mr Cox says there are "mutual incentives and disincentives for both parties to stay in the arrangement". "These improvements do make a difference," he adds.

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Brexit committee chairman Hilary Benn says the UK would have to persuade the arbitration panel to agree with its case if it wanted to suspend the Northern Ireland protocol.

He says the panel might refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU - whose decision could be "binding on the UK".

"All those things are self-evident," replies Mr Cox but adds that the circumstances in which that situation would arise are "difficult to envisage".

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Joanna Cherry asks if he agrees that the measures do not allow the UK to terminate the Northern Ireland backstop.

"Does he agree that nothing has changed," she asks.

Mr Cox suggests the SNP had "an ulterior motive" and argues that there is "a clear pathway to termination".

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"Today the emperor has no clothes - not even a codpiece," says the SNP's justice spokeswoman Joanna Cherry.

"For all the yards of flannel, it is quite clear that the legal position previously outlined by the attorney general remains the same," she says.

"These measures fall very short of what was promised to the ERG - which I'm sure will not be lost on them or their lawyers."

Meanwhile, the government's Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, shared this on her social media accounts - calling it "voting fuel".

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Conservative Iain Duncan Smith asks what force the UK has to seek remedies from the EU courts over the backstop.

Mr Cox says the content of the declaration "reduces the risk" that the UK will be held in the backstop against its will.

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Geoffrey Cox replies there is "no ultimate unilateral exit" out of the arrangement but adds that it is "a question of whether it is a likelihood" that eventuality will occur.

He notes that the Labour spokesman didn't clarify his own position on the backstop and accuses him of "opportunism".

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Shadow solicitor general Nick Thomas-Symonds points out the attorney general said previously that the UK could not leave the Northern Irish backstop without the EU's agreement and asks "What has changed?"

The UK's ability to take the EU to court over the backstop in the event of a dispute "is not new" and was there in the previous withdrawal agreement, he says.

Quoting the attorney general, he says "the legal risk remains unchanged" that the UK could remain trapped in the backstop.

He says the end of the attorney general's legal advice letter "destroys" the government's position over the past few weeks.

"The new documents do nothing" to change the provisions of the backstop.

He accuses the prime minister of putting party before country.

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Mr Cox says the provisions of the joint instrument "extend beyond mere interpretation of the withdrawal agreement and represents materially new legal obligations and commitments".

"There is no doubt in my view that the clarifications in the joint statement and unilateral declaration make substantive and binding reinforcements of the legal rights available to the UK," he says.

However he adds: "Matters of law can only inform the political decision each of us must make".

Business Insider politics reporter Thomas Colson reports that some Conservative MPs who previously voted against Mrs May's deal may now decide to back it.

Even if the Brexit deal passes tonight, there may be a need to extend Article 50, the Brexit secretary has said. This comes from the Huffington Post's politics news editor, Ned Simons.

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Mr Cox tells MPs that it is "in the interest of the UK and the EU to agree a future relationship as quickly as possible".

He adds, however, that the legal risk of the backstop remains "unchanged".

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Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse asks the Brexit secretary for an example of where "bad faith" has been proven in international law.

Proving bad faith on the behalf of the EU is a way the government says it could exit the backstop; its interpretation of this is set out in the unilateral UK statement , externalpublished last night.

Stephen Barclay says the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox will be "better placed than me" to answer that question.

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The Attorney General Geoffrey Cox now begins his statement.

He begins by telling MPs that the PM's deal "strengthens and improves" the withdrawal agreement.