[ad_1]
meHas the British Prime Minister gone too far this time? Not only the strong reactions of the European Union and the US Congress to Boris Johnson’s handling of the Brexit deal have a new quality. The outrage the head of government encounters from within his own ranks also differs from previous uprisings. Unlike last fall, when Johnson played by legal standards once, this time people are walking away from him who has always supported him.
Former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard likely made Downing Street strategists particularly nervous. Howard was shocked Thursday when ministers openly admitted that by amending the Brexit deal, they were “violating international law.” Howard said he never would have believed he would hear such words from a minister in his own party, speaking of “damage to our reputation.”
Howard is a staunch Brexit supporter and defended Johnson even when he disagreed with the constitutional court. At the time, the question was whether the mandatory leave of absence from Parliament was legal, which the higher judges ultimately denied. However, there were differences with the current issue. On the one hand, the legal dispute had a purely domestic dimension, it was about the interpretation of British constitutional law. This time, in the conflict with the European Union, there is little to discuss. The government prides itself on its disregard for the agreement. Parliament is sovereign under British law and is also allowed “to pass laws that violate international treaties,” he said in a statement Thursday night.
It’s no wonder conservatives, like former Prime Ministers John Major and Theresa May, are alarmed. The same goes for the chairmen of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees, Tom Tugendhat and Tobias Ellwood. He voted against Brexit and doesn’t think much of Johnson either. But this time the unrest is deeply ingrained in the flesh of conservatives, who traditionally see themselves as the party of law and justice. Loyal newspaper commentators have removed the prime minister. Stephen Glover reminded Johnson, the former journalist, in the Daily Mail that international treaties “cannot be torn and thrown away like newspaper columns.”
Corona pushes the British back further
Congressman Roger Gale stated that it is a “matter of principle” that one disagrees with a violation of the law, and reported many colleagues who viewed it similarly. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, who, like Howard, sits in the House of Lords, also went to the barricades. Unlike the House of Commons, the House remains a haven for opponents of Brexit. Howard and Lamont had been among the few in the past 14 months who gave Johnson almost unlimited support. Lamont gives the controversial law shaping the British domestic market “no chance” of being accepted by the Lords.
It is unclear how many Conservative MPs in the House of Commons will rebel against the law. Johnson could afford about forty renegades. That’s how big its majority is. Downing Street seems to consider the danger manageable. Influential Brexiteers like Iain Duncan Smith or Steve Baker are defending the government’s course, and the cabinet so far has shown no cracks either. The law will be debated in parliament for the first time next week. If he wins a majority in the House of Lords, he should start what the Daily Telegraph calls a “mighty battle” with the House of Lords. The government-affiliated newspaper believes Johnson does not necessarily want to pass the law in the controversial version, but mainly wants to use it as a lever in negotiations with the EU. According to this reading, Johnson could eventually become involved in corrections to the incriminated passages of the “Northern Ireland Protocol” if the relevant regulations were further clarified in the interest of the British during joint implementation talks.
Others believe, however, that Johnson is deliberately breaking up negotiations on future relations because the necessary compromises with the EU would restrict the kingdom’s sovereignty too much. Some hardliners in Downing Street are said to view the situation as favorable for a radical exit from the EU, because the economy is already in serious trouble due to the Corona crisis and the consequences of a “no deal” no can easily be attributed to Brexit.
Indeed, the Corona crisis is driving the British, and also the government, more and more. The tightening of protection measures, in particular the ban on meeting for more than six people, has divided society and received more public attention last week than the negotiating drama with Brussels. The move, which will be enforced with fines and new supervisors, could even become Johnson’s biggest problem. The resistance in the conservative parliamentary group against the six-person rule and its “unmarked” application is greater than against the violation of the law announced in a ratified agreement.
