Edited sentence: By its terms the proposed Withdrawal Agreement treaty, inconclusively debated in the House of Commons in December, is a legal contract to pay £39bn, with the Irish "backstop", for which in exchange Britain would secure a transition phase with no veto rights, bound to accept all fresh EU law even when it threatened the national interest, and, on payment of the exit fee, to have an opportunity of starting talks on a deal, the terms of which must be agreed by all 27 EU states (unlike the Withdrawal Agreement)