Tavistock’s MP Geoffrey Cox was caught in the heart of a historic political storm this week as the Government was the first to be found in contempt of Parliament after failing to publish its full legal advice document on Brexit.

Geoffrey Cox, the attorney general and MP for Torridge and West Devon, gave an outline of the legal position on Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal in an 18-minute speech to the House of Commons on Monday after a summary of his advice was released.

The Government initially had no intention of publishing his full legal advice document but opposition parties said that by limiting the information released, ministers were ignoring a binding Commons vote to see the information.

Mr Cox mounted a defence of the decision not to publish the full legal advice, stating it was not ‘in the national interest’ to break the convention that law officers’ advice to ministers is confidential. He added that ‘there is nothing to see here’ and that MPs needed to ‘grow up and get real’.

However, his wish to stick with convention was not to be, after MPs found the Government in contempt of UK Parliament by 311 votes to 293.

This led to the leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom declaring it would publish the legal advice in full, with the full advice published on Wednesday.

The Labour party led the cross-party alliance to table a motion of contempt on ministers for failing to publish the full advice.

The motion followed a letter of complaint that was sent to the Speaker of the House on Monday by Labour, the SNP, Liberal Democrats, DUP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party. The Speaker subsequently ruled to give precedence to a debate of contempt against the Government being held on Tuesday.

The cross-party motion found ministers of being in contempt of Parliament and demanded the publication of the the final and full legal advice.

Sir Keir Starmer MP, Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, said: ‘We have given ministers numerous opportunities to comply with the order of Parliament and to release the attorney general’s full and final legal advice on the Government’s Brexit deal.

‘However, they have refused to do so. We have therefore been left with no option but to press ahead with contempt proceedings. This is not about party politics.

‘It’s about parliamentary democracy and guaranteeing that MPs have the information they need to know precisely what the Government has negotiated with the European Union.

‘Even at this eleventh hour, I would urge ministers to step back from the brink and to not go down in history as the first Government to be found in contempt.’

The Government then tabled an amendment to have the issue referred to MPs on the privileges committee to investigate whether its response fulfilled all its obligations, taking into account any relevant past cases.

This was rejected by just four votes.

Putting the amendment to the House of Commons on Tuesday in response to Keir Starmer, the leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom said: ’The use of this [contempt] motion has happened very rarely in the history of Parliament.

‘No honourable member could say in all honesty that the attorney general has done anything other than treat this House with the greatest of respect, there can be no question that he or the Government has acted in a manner which is contemptuous of this House.’

As a result of the contempt decision, the privileges committee will now decide which ministers should be held accountable and what sanction to apply, from a reprimand to suspension.

Those calling for the release of the full legal advice claimed that it contains stark warnings about the Northern Ireland ‘backstop’ — designed to protect Northern Ireland’s peace process by preventing the return of customs posts and checkpoints on the Irish border — that were not included in the summary which could see the UK ‘indefinitely committed’ to EU customs rules if Brexit talks break down.

In the House of Commons, Mr Cox stated that it was not in anyone’s political interests to allow the deal to break down and that the Brexit deal on the table was a ‘sensible compromise’ with ’unsatisfactory elements’, but was a ‘calculated risk that this government should take in these circumstances’.

Mr Cox’s speech led to his name trending on Twitter on Monday, with commentators debating his speech.