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MEPs have reinserted into controversial Brexit legislation powers that would allow UK ministers to violate international law.
The House of Commons restored sections of the UK’s Internal Market Act that had been removed by their peers, as talks continue between the UK and the EU seeking a deal on the deals beyond December 31.
The bill sets out how trade within the UK will work once it is outside the single market and the EU customs union.
It initially contained sections that allowed ministers to void the Brexit divorce agreement, thereby violating international law, in an attempt to protect the commercial relationship between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The peers inflicted a series of tough defeats on the government to remove the clauses, but MPs reinstated them on Monday night.
Only one of the contentious clauses was put to a vote, and the government won by 357 votes to 268, a majority of 89.
Business Minister Paul Scully previously said the government wanted to keep these clauses in their current form in the bill until discussions with the EU “have been successfully concluded.”
He also confirmed that the government would be willing to remove or deactivate three of the clauses if solutions are agreed during talks with the EU.
To the Labor Party, shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said the offer sounded like “the beginning of the grinding of the wheels of descent.”
He added: “Three months of posturing, undermining our reputation in the world, and today, an hour before the debate begins, we see some preparations perhaps for the brakes to be applied before we go off the cliff.”
“I have to say that I am not going to give the government any credit for that, and I also don’t take their word for it, because there is one thing that this whole regrettable saga has shown the world, I fear, without a doubt, and with this government its word is not their bond, they cannot be trusted because they are willing to break international agreements that they made less than a year ago. “
Miliband also said the bill had been “absolutely wild” in the Lords.
He argued: “It has been absolutely savage, not only in international law but also in refoulement, not only by opposition parties, not only by interlocutors, not only by the former Chief Justice or the Archbishop of Canterbury, but it has been savagely for the heart of the Conservative Party. “
SNP’s Stuart McDonald said: “I think that once introducing this terrible bill to this House was outrageous, showing contempt for our European friends and neighbors, trampling on all international law, and overlooking refoulement.
“Pushing it a second time, deliberately putting the same flaws back in place as before, is just a shame.”
The peers also inflicted defeats on the government on return matters, amid concerns that the bill sidesteps the freedoms of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
These were also revoked by parliamentarians, even in the so-called common frameworks, which manage the degree of divergence between political areas, and the financing of regional projects.
The peers had accused Westminster of pursuing a “power grab” by allowing ministers to make funding decisions across the UK after Brexit, something the UK government did not agree with.
The bill returns to the House of Lords on Wednesday, where the comrades could decide to defend themselves and remove the controversial powers a second time.
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