Thread by @Joe_Marshall0

There is a lot of confusion on Twitter about the possibility of the gov asking MPs to approve ONLY the Withdrawal Agreement part of the deal tomorrow.
This may partly be a result of the different requirements at play in EU law and UK law:

- As a matter of UK LAW, MPs need to approve the WA and PD before the UK can ratify the WA (unless the requirement in the EU (Withdrawal) Act is changed by a new piece of primary legislation). This is what the 'meaningful votes' have been trying to do.

- As a matter of EU law, on 22 March the EU agreed to extent to 12 April (unconditionally), but put a condition on a longer extension to 22 May- that MPs approve the WA part of the deal (i.e. not nec the political declaration part) by the end of this week

If MPs do approve only the WA part of the deal tomorrow, the UK will not leave until 22 May- leaving time for MPs to hold a 'meaningful vote' signing off both the WA and PD together, or changing the requirement so this is no longer required before the UK can ratify the WA.

If MPs do not approve only the WA part of the deal tomorrow, the UK will be due to leave on 12 April- unless the government can secure a revised extension agreement with the EU.

There is some sense in this. The WA alone is more likely to pass than the combined WA and PD (@UKLabour has few substantive concerns with the WA- despite @RLong_Bailey trying to find some on @BBCr4today). @jillongovt has proposed this.

However, some MPs will be concerned about signing off the WA without a clear idea of the future- risking a 'blind Brexit'. The vague political declaration is a reasons MPs have not backed the deal so far. It's possible MPs may not back the WA,even if it puts the extension at risk

However, some have argued that voting on the WA alone would not satisfy the EU Council condition- as this would not be 'meaningful' in domestic law, given the EUWA requirements.

And, as others have said, if the gov gets the WA through without the DUP, the confidence and supply deal will likely fall- making passing the legislation to implement a deal even more challenging, and likely pushing us towards a general election)