Brexit: Archbishops Warn of “Disastrous Precedent” on Controversial Internal Market Bill in Rare Joint Letter | Political news

The archbishops of the United Kingdom have written a rare joint letter in which they warn that the government’s controversial new Brexit legislation could undermine trust between the four nations of origin.

Ahead of their peers in the House of Lords debating Internal market bill on Monday, the Archbishops of Armagh, Canterbury, York, Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church said that in its current form it could pose “enormous moral, political and legal consequences.”

That harsh assessment relates to a minister’s own admission that the plan allows the government violate international law in a “limited and specific” way.

The letter, to be published in the Financial Times, describes the suggestions on how the four home nations will trade with each other after Brexit as an “entirely new system, replacing one that evolved slowly and through careful negotiations over decades.”

It raises concerns about the bill’s ability to “equip a government minister to violate international law.”, adding it would create a “disastrous precedent” in the future.

The bill, which will be read for the second time in the House of Lords on Monday, is currently in the process of becoming legislation.

After its publication on September 9, it became a contentious topic, as it nullifies parts of Britain’s legal divorce agreement with the EU, known as the Withdrawal Agreement.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis had tried to defend the bill when he admitted that it violated international law and said the government was trying to “not apply” EU law.

He added that there is “clear precedent that the UK and other countries need to consider their international obligations as circumstances change,” but it drew condemnation from all the Commons, including former Prime Minister Theresa May.

And in a report released Friday by the House of Lords Select Committee on the constitution, their peers said ministers should listen to the concerns of delegated administrations about the bill and amend it accordingly.

In their letter to the peers, the Revs John McDowell, Justin Welby, Mark Strange, John Davies and Stephen Cottrell said: “The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd have made it clear that the weakening of the bill of both principle and effect of policy delegation is of constitutional significance.

“Furthermore, if the bill is enacted without the consent of delegated legislatures (as it will be if it is not amended to address their concerns), this will further undermine trust and goodwill between those who govern the different parts of the UK.” .

He adds: “The UK negotiated the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU to ‘protect the 1998 Agreement in all its dimensions’.

“One year later, in this bill, the UK government is not only preparing to break the protocol, but also to violate a fundamental principle of the Agreement: namely, to limit the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Northern Ireland legislation.

“If carefully negotiated terms are not respected and laws can be ‘legally’ violated, on what foundation is our democracy built?”

The bishops’ letter comes as the government launches a new “time is running out” campaign to urge companies to prepare for a no-deal Brexit.

The movement follows the collapse of trade negotiations between Lord Frost and Michel Barnier last week, which ended with Lord Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, telling his EU counterpart not to bother returning to the UK this week.

Analysis: Don’t Worry About Bishops, Prime Minister’s Brexit Bill Faces Vicious Beating In Lords
By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent

Boris Johnson’s controversial domestic market bill doesn’t just oppose top bishops, including Justin Welby. It will also face an evil beating when it is first debated in the House of Lords.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is one of 113 companions who will speak in the two-day debate at the second reading of the bill, when he will not be defeated, because His Lordships do nothing as vulgar as defeating the bills at the second reading. , but it will. face bitter opposition.

And over the next several months, in what promises to be a troubled stage of the committee, he will be disarmed, chewed up and spat on by the overwhelmingly pro-Remain House of Lords, putting his peers on a collision course with the Commons and setting up a forceful clash. with the prime minister.

Dr Welby, along with his fellow Archbishops of Armagh, Wales, York and the Scottish Episcopal Church, claim that the bill, which nullifies the Prime Minister’s own EU Withdrawal Agreement, “would create a dangerous precedent.”

They state: “It is particularly disturbing for all of us who feel the duty and responsibility of the Good Friday Agreement (Belfast), that international treaty on which peace and stability depend within and between the UK and Ireland.”

There will be many colleagues who will totally agree with that. And not just the fully paid Remoaners, Brussels lovers and bored pro-EU benches on Labor, Liberal Democrats and Crusaders in the House of Lords.

Also speaking in the second reading debate are conservative hardline eurosceptics, including Michael Howard and Norman Lamont, who have already spoken out strongly against the bill in the Lords.

Lord Howard demanded to know how the UK could “reproach” Russia, China and Iran for their conduct when it was willing to violate international law.

Also speaking from the conservative banks in the debate will be Howard and Lamont’s former Cambridge contemporary and Brexit adversary, Kenneth Clarke, new to the Lords and who recently delivered his inaugural address.

Clarke, a former attorney general and chancellor, is one of many lawyers speaking. And while bully Ken will join in the political demolition of the bill, his learned friends will no doubt raise intricate legal objections, as if the House of Lords is a courtroom.

These eminent attorneys include QC Alex Carlile, former terrorism adviser Edward Garnier, a former Conservative Attorney General, Lord Judge (yes, actually) a former Lord Chief Justice, and Labor Baroness Helena Kennedy.

Also speaking are former Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd, 91 earlier this month, and former Commons Secretary Robert Rogers, now Lord Lisvane, the oracle on all procedural matters.

The conservative opposition in the Commons was led by former Prime Minister Theresa May, who in a powerful speech last month denounced the bill as “reckless” and said it would “damage confidence in the UK”.

If the bill passes, he said, “our reputation as a country that keeps its word will have been tarnished.” In voting on the bill in third reading, however, he abstained, instead of voting against.

At the Lords this time, his representative on the ground, his former Downing Street chief of staff Gavin Barwell, empowered in his resignation honors, is also on the list of speakers.

In addition to Ms May, the other four living former Prime Ministers – Sir John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron – have spoken out against the bill.

Now it is the turn of your Lordships, who will undoubtedly inflict the wrath of God on the bill, with the help of the UK’s highest-ranking archbishop.