Boris Johnson is set for a confrontation with the DUP and hardline Conservative Brexiteers after he rejected their calls to toughen up a Bill to unilaterally override the Northern Ireland protocol. Whitehall sources confirmed on Thursday that it will be enabling legislation that will give British ministers the power to disapply parts of the protocol.
The DUP and the European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative Eurosceptics have been pressing for the Bill to have the immediate effect of scrapping the protocol’s measures and replacing them with a new system for goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The DUP are unwilling to elect a speaker for the Northern Ireland Assembly if the Bill leaves action on the protocol to the discretion of ministers.
Veteran Brexiteer Bernard Jenkin said in the House of Commons on Thursday that his response to the legislation depended on whether it satisfied the DUP.
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“If the Government bring forward a Bill that does not hold out the serious prospect of the restoration of powersharing in Northern Ireland and the restoration of the Good Friday agreement, I will vote against it,” he said.
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Foreign secretary Liz Truss agreed to make changes to the planned legislation after a meeting with the ERG this week, but Mr Johnson ordered that the changes should be reversed. The prime minister is understood to have told colleagues that he does not want his government’s policy to be determined by the DUP.
Some of the 148 Conservatives who voted against Mr Johnson’s leadership have threatened to vote against any legislation that breaches international law or risks a trade war with the EU.
Downing Street said that when the legislation is introduced early next week, attorney general Suella Braverman will publish a summary of legal advice showing that it does not breach international law. The British government’s argument is understood to rest on the contention that breaking Britain’s treaty with the EU is necessary to protect a more important international agreement, the Belfast Agreement.
The British Labour leader Keir Starmer told The Irish Times that Mr Johnson was engaged in “destruction politics” and had destroyed the trust between Dublin and London and undermined the status of the British prime minister as an honest broker under the Belfast Agreement. Labour has promised to vote against any unilateral move on the protocol, warning Mr Johnson that he is risking a trade war with the EU at a time when the British economy is fragile.
Sir Keir was in Dublin for meetings with the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin and members of the Irish Labour Party. Irish officials described the meetings as useful and interesting.
