The National:

A SHIVER of fear must run down the Prime Minister’s spine when she sees Joanna Cherry rise from the SNP benches to press her government on Brexit.

The SNP MP and QC had the perfect opportunity to do so today, as she addressed the legal advice from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox that shattered any hope Theresa May had of her deal passing tonight.

In fact, Cherry had a killer line to go with it, too.

She said: “Can I start by saying that I have respect and sympathy for the Attorney General.

“The role of the law officer is not an easy one – particularly when he or she is a party-political appointment, but must nevertheless, from time to time, burst his party’s political bubble, in the interests of professional integrity and independence of advice.

“And make no mistake, that is what the Attorney General has done today.

“Because, Mr Speaker, today the Emperor has no clothes – none at all, not even a codpiece.”

Perfectly said. We only wish we had been able to see the Prime Minister's face as that line was delivered.

A reminder, in case you missed it, or have successfully managed to forget (our apologies for this if so)...

Asked earlier this month if the UK Government planned to reopen the withdrawal agreement, Cox said: “It is government policy to achieve the necessary change in the backstop.

“That is Government policy; that is the subject of the discussions that we are having. I would say that it has come to be called ‘Cox’s codpiece’. What I am concerned to ensure is that what is inside the codpiece is in full working order.”

It was a fantastic line from Cherry, and she went on to explain the detail too.

She continued: “And for all the yards of flannel, in paragraphs 4-10 of [the Attorney General’s] legal opinion, and in his statement today, it is quite clear, as the shadow attorney general said, from paragraph 19 of the legal opinion, that the legal position previously outlined by the attorney general remains the same.”

This Tory Brexit is a shambles, and it means more and more Scots seeing the need for us to take our own decisions on such momentous issues.