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Boris Johnson has told Conservative MPs that legislation that will violate international law by rewriting parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement is necessary “to prevent a foreign power from dividing our country.”
Addressing his parliamentary party in a video call, the prime minister urged MPs to support the UK internal market bill that the House of Commons begins debating next Monday.
“We must not go back to the miserable fighting days of last fall,” he said.
Three former Conservative leaders and several of the party’s leading supporters have warned against adopting legislation that the government has admitted would violate international law. The number of rebels is estimated to be too small to defeat the bills in the Commons, but they could be amended or delayed in the House of Lords.
The European Union has threatened legal action if Britain does not withdraw the bills by the end of September, but British government sources on Friday downplayed the possible impact of the dispute on negotiations towards a free trade agreement.
British negotiators will travel to Brussels next week for more talks, and the opinion in Downing Street is that states often find themselves in disputes on one issue while negotiating on another.
“The talks this week have been relatively more constructive than you might expect, but ultimately progress will be determined by whether we get more realism from them in the key areas of divergence. While we are beginning to debate the substance of some issues, large important areas remain to be resolved. We will continue speaking in Brussels next week, ”said a senior British negotiating official.
British sources have accused the EU of undermining negotiations on the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol by threatening to remove Britain from a list of safe countries allowed to export food to the EU. This could prevent British food producers from selling their products in Northern Ireland and exporting them to the EU.
“The right to export is the absolute basis of a relationship between two countries that market agricultural products. It is a license to export and completely independent of the subject of food standards. It would be very unusual for the EU to go this route and reject the UK listing, “said a British government spokesman.
The bills would allow British ministers to decide which goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland are considered at risk of entering the EU single market and what paperwork should accompany goods moving in the other direction. Ministers would also determine the scope of the protocol’s demand that Britain notify the EU about business subsidies affecting trade between Northern Ireland and the EU.
Belfast Agreement
Earlier, the Minister of State for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne, said: “It is completely incorrect to say that this is to protect the Good Friday Agreement.
“In fact, the opposite is the case. I think what should happen now is that the UK should withdraw these particular statutory provisions that they are proposing by law through parliament.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, he added: “What they intend to do is seriously jeopardize the foundation of peace on the island of Ireland.
“And the basis of our trade, and the unrestricted, cross-border trade in goods that is absolutely essential to that peace.”
The EU stepped up planning for a “no-deal” Brexit on Friday after the Johnson government refused to reverse a plan to break the divorce treaty that Brussels says will plunge four years of talks.
The EU has demanded that Britain remove the plan to violate the divorce treaty at the end of this month. Britain has refused, saying its parliament is sovereign above international law.
“As the UK looks at what kind of future trade relationship it wants with the European Union, a prerequisite for that is to respect the agreements that are already in place,” said Pascal Donohoe, chairman of the euro zone finance ministers.
“It is imperative that the UK government respond to the call of the [European] Commission.”
As the atmosphere turned sour between London and Brussels, Japan and Britain said they had reached an agreement in principle on a bilateral trade deal that meant that 99 percent of British exports to Japan would be duty-free.
Investment banks have increased their estimates of the chances of a rocky end to Britain’s exit from the trading and political bloc it first joined in 1973, and the British pound has fallen against the dollar and the euro.
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