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LAST UPDATE | 27 Jun 2022
BORIS JOHNSON’S BID to effectively tear up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol has cleared its first Commons hurdle amid warnings from some Tories that the plans are illegal.
MPs voted 295 to 221, majority 74, to give the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill a second reading, which clears the way for it to undergo detailed scrutiny in the coming weeks.
Johnson claimed the proposed legislation, which gives ministers powers to override parts of the post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, could be carried out “fairly rapidly”, with the proposals in law by the end of the year.
But his predecessor in No 10, Theresa May, led the criticism from the Tory benches as she delivered a withering assessment of the legality and impact of the Bill.
May made clear she would not support the legislation and warned it will “diminish” the UK’s global standing.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, presenting the bill, called it “legal and necessary”.
The second reading of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would see customs checks between Northern Ireland and Britain effectively scrapped, took place in the House of Commons this afternoon into the evening.
The Bill would also give UK government ministers the power to change almost every aspect of the text.
Truss pointed to the absence of a functioning government in Northern Ireland and said it was the duty of the UK government’s to “act now”.
The DUP has blocked attempts to move forward on forming a new Executive since Northern Ireland’s recent elections, citing its discontent with the Protocol.
Truss said the UK would “continue to seek a negotiated solution with the EU” as the Bill progresses.
“There is a solution to be achieved. We have laid it out very clearly with our proposal, but we do need the EU to agree to change the text of the protocol,” she said.
“That is the fundamental issue that needs to be addressed.”
Truss said the UK government was acting in the interests of people in Northern Ireland.
“Once this legislation is enacted, we can draw a line under this issue and unleash the full potential of our relationship with the EU.”
Significant time was set aside for the debate this afternoon and into this evening,
Speaking to reporters earlier this afternoon, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the breaking of an international agreement should not be trivialised and that the UK Government were continuing to move towards unilateralism.
“One cannot trivialise the breaching of an international agreement between the United Kingdom government and the European Union,” said Martin.
“My concern is a trend towards unilateralism that’s emanating from the UK Government.
“We have it now on the Protocol. We’ve had it on legacy issues.
“This is not a good move by the British Government and it has to accept that unilateralism does not work in the context of the Good Friday Agreement or indeed in the context of good relationships with your neighbors and with the European Union.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney added said he is “hugely disappointed” that the British government is continuing to pursue its “unlawful unilateral approach on the Protocol on Northern Ireland”.
“This is not the way to find sustainable solutions to the genuine concerns of people and business in NI and only adds to uncertainty,” he said in a statement.
“I continue to urge the British government to return to constructive dialogue with the EU in pursuit of jointly agreed, long-lasting solutions.”
NI Protocol Bill:
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) June 27, 2022
It will damage the GFA, not protect it.
It’s a breach of Int. Law & will damage the UKs reputation.
It’s against business & majority opinion in NI.
It’s unnecessary UK unilateral action when partnership & compromise is on offer from #EU.
This Bill is no fix.
Commons debate
MPs in the House of Commons held a long and firy debate on their positions on the Protocol Bill.
Speaking in the Commons, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the Protocol Bill was seeking to “finally and fundamentally reset and restore Northern Ireland’s relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom, given the devastating impact of the protocol on the economic, constitutional, social and political life of Northern Ireland over the last 18 months”.
The MP for Lagan Valley said MLAs in Northern Ireland were presiding over regulations “over which they have no say”.
SDLP MP Claire Hanna called for a “negotiated solution” with the EU as she told MPs “we have solved bigger problems than these before”.
The MP for Belfast South insisted “there’s no doubt that the protocol can be smooth” and “the operation can be improved”, adding: “Everybody says that.
“Nobody, as I’ve said before, in Northern Ireland loves the protocol, but we know that the better options were voted down, but like everything that’s worth doing in Northern Ireland that will be achieved through partnership, through compromises, and not through unmeetable red lines that would remove the people of Northern Ireland from the single market, which is something that has no support,” Hanna said.
“But instead of doing the hard work and levelling with the people of Northern Ireland, this Government, to whom the DUP have shackled themselves, are choosing to distort and deflect.”
Conservative MP William Cash said the Bill is “necessary” to protect the union and Good Friday Agreement, and he criticised the European Union of “intransigence”.
Fellow Conservative and former minister Bob Neill told the Commons he would abstain from the vote “”to see how the Bill develops because I think it could be amended into a workable form, but it comes with very many caveats and a lot of questions I think the ministers need to answer”.
Alliance MP Stephen Farry called it an “an extremely bad Bill, it’s unwanted, unnecessary and, indeed, it’s dangerous”
Conservative former Northern Ireland minister Andrew Murrison has said he will support the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, but said he is “somewhat bewildered” by the refusal to consider triggering Article 16.
“That is already available to them and nobody has marshalled credible argument, that satisfies me certainly, that it could not be done, should not be done. The grounds for triggering Article 16 are clearly there, in that we don’t have anything approaching proper covenants in Northern Ireland, not at all,” Murrison said.
EU response
The European Union has strongly condemned the plan to unilaterally scrap parts of the Brexit deal and has warned that it could take further action against Britain if it enacts the legislation.
The EU launched fresh legal action against the UK just days after the Bill was published.
European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said the UK’s move had “no legal or political justification”.
As well as new legal action for alleged failures to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol as it stands, Sefcovic confirmed that existing infringement proceedings which had been paused while UK-EU talks took place would now be resumed.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Sefcovic said the UK Government had set out to “unilaterally break international law”.
The plan would mean “breaking an agreement that protects peace and stability in Northern Ireland, an agreement reached together only three years ago”.
“Let there be no doubt: there is no legal nor political justification whatsoever for unilaterally changing an international agreement.
“Opening the door to unilaterally changing an international agreement is a breach of international law as well. So let’s call a spade a spade: this is illegal.”
Asked about potential further action against the UK, he said: “If this draft Bill becomes the law then I cannot exclude anything.
“But we are not there yet and we want to solve this issue as the two partners should, through negotiations, looking for the common ground and delivering for the people of Northern Ireland.”
Additional reporting by Tadgh McNally, Lauren Boland and Press Association
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Ireland stands in the way of the hard Brexit purist fantasy, and so it must be pushed out of the EU market. This is completely in line with the Brexit hardline, whose adherers were never going to be content with simply leaving the EU. To ‘make Britain great again’ the EU needs to be damaged, divided, and preferably destroyed. This is what we’re dealing with.
What amuses me is that our Government constantly criticize and try to demean anyone one that holds a different set of beliefs than theirs. A bit like “everyone is out of step except my Johnny”. They complain about the breaking of International Treaties by the UK but fail to mention that they themselves break treaties on a daily basis by denying Irish people access to European insurance companies, penalize Irish people with VRT for purchasing a vehicle outside of Ireland, etc.
@Jack Cass: that’s some take,
@Jack Cass: that’s some take,
@Eric Foley: you can say that again!
@Jack Cass: perhaps you should take a case to the European Courts of Justice, which has the jurisdiction to adjudicate on treaty infringements, just as the EU are doing with the UK at present?
@Jack Cass: VRT is not illegal.
Why would anybody do a deal with a country that will not keeps its word
@Anthony Ross: Well you played your card Lizzie to become leader. Think the longer this Brexit crises goes on the more the British people realise it was all a big scam to keep the rich very rich and the poor much poorer.
Brexiteer billionaires have to break the EU Certified Quality Standard Controls! Having invested in China for the last 40 years (UK Hong Kong)has put 600 million Chinese into employment and housing! Their selling of western technology and financial reinvestment (UK /USA special relationship) in China has created a New World Super Power! No substandards in Industry, Commerce and Agriculture will be allowed in the EU ! What really is amazing that Brexiteer billionaires classify themselves as patriotic yet,do not invest in their own countries ? The EU will never allow FREE PORT BELFAST to be established and import JUNK products through the NI back door!
Liz Truss doesn’t even know what day it is, let alone anything else. That’s why Johnson keeps giving her things to do.
Boris said that brexshit would make the uk the Singapore of Europe. Instead he is making it the North Korea of Europe. Neither his government or him have a trustworthy word.
@Jim Deck: I’m not so sure about that having just watched “A Spider’s Web” it strikes me that brexit might be about getting out of being involved in an EU banking union which might reveal more than the City would and/or make it harder for them to carry on.
It seems the tax havens in the remnants of the Empire are less independent than they appear and there is a lot of money in them.
Miss Trust has certainly changed her tune.
In June 2016, just days before the Brexit vote, Ms Truss tweeted: “Leave cannot name one country we would get a better trade deal with if we left the EU.”
Changes direction with the wind methinks.
She’s nailed her colours to the wrong mast this time though.
@Skipper Mac: BJ wrote two pieces before the referendum. One remain, one leave both convincingly written.
One of the things that the Union Society encourages is being able to argue both sides of anything.
They are cut from the same cloth.
A terrified DUP holding the British government to ransom and getting away with it
@Paul Jude Redmond: The Torys have always played the orange card it worked out very well for them in the past. I just hope this time it will bring them down just like Blackjack one card to many. After we are in 2022.
You can buy insurance anywhere in Europe to drive in Ireland, it costs around the same though and will not cover everything, thus its something you need to raise with the company not the EU, in addition A report prepared by Denis Murphy for the Commission on Taxation stated that ‘The EU has commented that although VRT is legal it is totally contrary to the spirit of the single market and has recommended that it be phased out over a 5 to 10 years.so is legal and your talking sh*té, even though you disagree strongly with something doesn’t make it illegal or impossible,again talk to your local TD not the EU.
@Stephen Mc Cabe: sources please?
@Hugh Fogerty: Do your own research, I did and he is right.
@Hugh Fogerty: It’s because VRT technically is a tax on the registration of the car, and not the car itself. Hence why its legal, but not in the spirit of the EU.
Truss and some of her cohorts are practising to be future Putins . We listened to “out ,out….” , “ let them eat cake” etc. over the decades . Softly ,softly doesn’t work , a Mick Lynch approach is the only language they will understand.
I doubt the Lords will let this pass and if they do it will be challenged in the supreme court or court if session as it’s clearly illegal and violation of an international treaty.
@Ciaran Burke: Meanwhile BJ can ignore NI and the EU until it comes to rest. If any remnant remains to be made into law he will do it and tell the DUP that it is the best he was allowed to do for them and the EU see it’s not so bad is it.
Does he care that the NI executive has work piling up that cannot be done.
Does he €&_€##) & €”!
About as legal as me owning an AR-15. Truss & the rest of that tory cabinet are devoid of any morals. Her crap about being concerned about the GFA was not very convincing. They don’t give a damn about NI. Willing to break international law and wreak havoc on the GFA & the hard won peace we spent so long trying to achieve, all just to appease Jeffrey and his goons to get them back into the assembly. They should be told to return or step aside and let the other parties get on with governing. There are far too many capitulations to the DUP. They can’t be let continuously hold the future of NI to ramsom for their demands.
C’ant Truss it!
NI business doesn’t want Truss’s new bill as they say it will be a bureaucratic nightmare for them. The British government has sided with the minority of Union extremists.
As Mick Lynch would say “ You Are A Liar”
With regard to the DUP it is certainly a case of the tail wagging the dog.
Truss has all the charm of a poker but lacking in its occasional warmth
A date that will live in infamy!
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