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Former Conservative leader Michael Howard has said a compromise between Downing Street and the secondary rebels is not enough to allow him to vote for the UK’s internal market bill in the House of Lords.
Under the compromise, the clauses of the bill that violate international law by breaching the Brexit withdrawal agreement cannot be activated without a new vote in the House of Commons.
The government said Thursday that it would ask parliament for permission to activate those clauses only if it believed the EU was involved in “a material breach of its good faith duties or other obligations, and thus undermines the fundamental purpose of Ireland’s protocol of the North”. .
Lord Howard, a prominent Brexit supporter who led the Conservatives from 2003 to 2005, said the changes didn’t go far enough. “The government is still asking Parliament to break international law,” he told the BBC.
“I don’t know what my colleagues will do, but as far as I’m concerned, this is a matter of principle.”
Bad faith
In its statement Thursday, the British government listed examples of actions by the EU that would constitute acting in bad faith. They include insisting that tariffs and related provisions, such as import VAT, should be charged on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland “in ways that are not related to the actual risk of the goods entering the market. sole EU “; insist on export declarations for Northern Ireland goods destined for Great Britain; insisting that EU state aid provisions should be applied in Great Britain “in circumstances where there is no or only trivial link to business operations taking place in Northern Ireland”; and refusing to allow UK agricultural products to be included in the third country list for “manifestly unreasonable or badly justified” reasons.
“HMG confirms that, in parallel with the use of these provisions, it would always activate the appropriate formal dispute resolution mechanisms with the aim of finding a solution in this way,” the statement said.
Vast majority
The compromise should ensure that the bill passes all its stages in the House of Commons with a large majority by the end of September. It is then moved to the Lords where it can be amended and sent back to the Commons. If MPs reject the Lords ‘amendments, the peers can try again, but it is unusual for this process, known as “ping-pong,” to continue once the Commons have rejected the Lords’ amendments twice.
In exceptional circumstances, the Lords may refuse to pass a bill, but the Commons may then pass it under the Act of Parliament in the next parliamentary session, usually the following year.
Labor leader Keir Starmer said on Thursday his party would continue to oppose the bill despite Downing Street’s concessions to conservative rebels. “The latest amendment trick doesn’t eliminate the problem, it only changes the problem,” he said.
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