Most people assume that a deal with the EU would mean getting some changes to Theresa May’s thrice-rejected withdrawal agreement (WA).
This kind of deal faces three huge problems.
First, timing. Negotiating changes to the WA with the EU, and then getting the necessary legislation through Parliament in time to leave the EU on Oct 31, would be quite impossible. The 175-clause Bill (still kept under wraps) is a horror story packed with contentious clauses. It effectively unrepeals the 1972 European Communities Act, and gives supreme status in our own courts to the WA and the EU laws which it applies to the UK.