Boris Johnson defended a bill to unilaterally amend the Northern Ireland Protocol as a direct “bureaucratic change”, as the Irish foreign minister said the plans would violate international law and noted a “particularly low point” in Brexit.
As a sign of a possible rift in relations between the United Kingdom and EU countries over a bill released later Monday, Simon Cowney warned his British counterpart, Liz Truss, that it could be “deeply harmful”.
Downing Street has insisted that the government has received advice on whether a unilateral attempt to change the post-Brexit protocol risks violating international law, although it plans to publish only a summary of it on Monday.
Johnson rejected the idea that the bill would violate international law, telling LBC Radio: “I do not agree with that. Why? Because I think our higher and previous legal commitment as a country is to the Belfast Good Friday agreement and to the balance of stability of that agreement.
The bill, which is said to be tight due to pressure from strong pro-Brexit ministers and lawmakers, is “the right way forward,” Johnson said.
“A community feels very, very alienated from the way things work, very alienated,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. It is relatively easy to do. This is a bureaucratic change that needs to be made. Honestly, this is a relatively trivial set of adjustments to the grand scheme of things.
The bill is expected to unilaterally change elements of the post-Brexit trade rules relating to Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
It is expected to establish a dual regulatory regime allowing companies from Northern Ireland to comply with UK or EU standards, and to cancel checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the UK if they do not then cross the Irish border.
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The EU has warned that the move could trigger a trade-based response. That, Johnson said, would be a “gross, gross overreaction.” He added: “All we are trying to do is simplify things, remove barriers to trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Irish Foreign Office’s reading of the Cowney-Truss conversation took a markedly different tone, saying the Irish minister had told Truss that the bill would violate the UK’s commitments under international law and would be “deeply detrimental to relations between these islands and between The United Kingdom and the EU. “
It added: “Minister Cowney said this marked a particularly low point in the UK’s approach to Brexit, especially since Secretary Truss had not committed himself to negotiations with the EU in any meaningful way since February. Minister Cowney reiterated that the protocol was the agreed decision, ratified by Westminster, for the hard Brexit persecuted by the UK government.
The call, according to the testimony, lasted only 12 minutes.
The bill is seen as Johnson’s latest attempt to soften the rebels and re-establish his authority.
However, a number of his back benches disagree with the idea. A briefing on the bill, shared by some lawmakers, for the first time, PoliticsHome reported, said it “harms everything the UK and conservatives advocate”.
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