UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson suffered a heavy defeat in the parliament’s upper house on Monday night over legislation that would allow him to violate Britain’s exit agreement with the European Union (EU).
The Internal Market Bill is designed to protect trade between the UK’s four nations after Brexit. However, it goes back on the withdrawal agreement’s promise to allow EU laws to govern Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic of Ireland. While several British politicians accepted that the legislation would amount to a violation of the country’s obligations under the Brexit treaty (and, therefore, international law), Johnson has defended his decision, saying that such a provision may be necessary to act as a “legal safety net” in order to “uphold the integrity of the UK [and] also to protect the Northern Irish peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.” The EU, for its part, has pursued legal action against the UK over the controversial bill.
However, Monday’s vote highlighted the lack of support for such an endeavor, from both within the ruling Tory party and the opposition, as the House of Lords voted overwhelmingly—433 votes to 165—to remove clauses from the bill that would allow the government to breach international law. The chamber also voted to remove another clause giving ministers the authority to override parts of the Brexit agreement relating to Northern Ireland by 407 votes to 148.
“The government should see sense, accept the removal of these offending clauses, and start to rebuild our international reputation,” said Angela Smith, the opposition Labour Party’s leader in the Lords. Former Conservative Party Leader Lord Howard also called on the PM Johnson to “think again” and remove the contentious sections from the bill, warning that the leadership was using the language of “lawbreakers” everywhere.
However, following the vote, the Johnson administration said in a statement: “We will retable these clauses when the bill returns to the [House of] Commons. We’ve been consistently clear that the clauses represent a legal safety net to protect the integrity of the UK’s internal market and the huge gains of the peace process. We expect the House of Lords to recognise that we have an obligation to the people of Northern Ireland to make sure they continue to have unfettered access to the UK under all circumstances.”
The bill will be presented to the lower house of parliament next month, where it had previously passed 340 votes to 256. The EU and the UK resumed trade talks on Monday, and are racing to secure an agreement before December 31, when the UK will leave the single market and customs union at the end of the post-Brexit transition period. Former PM Sir John Major, who has been an outspoken critic of Brexit, said on Tuesday that the UK’s “inflexibility” and “threats” towards the EU will only make negotiations more difficult, and the UK’s withdrawal more brutal.
PM Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill Faces Defeat in UK Parliament
The House of Lords voted to remove contentious clauses from the bill that allowed the government to breach international law.
November 11, 2020
SOURCE: METRO