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Source: PA Images
BORIS JOHNSON’s controversial Brexit legislation, which allows the UK to violate international law, has been passed by the House of Commons.
Parliamentarians voted 340 to 256, majority 84, in favor of the UK internal market bill, despite warnings that the “infringing” legislation threatens UK unity and the country’s global reputation.
The ministers have defended the powers contained in the legislation, which gives them the opportunity to annul the Brexit divorce agreement.
They argue that such powers are necessary to protect the relationship between Britain and Northern Ireland, amid concerns in Westminster that Brussels could seek to disrupt food products traveling from Britain to Northern Ireland as part of trade talks.
The UK government was forced to commit earlier to passing the bill in the face of a conservative rebellion, which resulted in changes to give MPs a vote before ministers can use powers that would violate the Withdrawal Agreement. negotiated with Brussels last year.
The bill also contains powers that allow Westminster to provide financial assistance for economic development, infrastructure, cultural activities, and educational purposes across the country.
Opposition MPs have warned that it will give the UK government a chance to drift towards matters being delegated to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, calling it an “attack” on refoulement.
Commerce Secretary Alok Sharma told MPs: “Our approach will give businesses the regulatory clarity and certainty they want.
“It will ensure that the cost of doing business in the UK is kept as low as possible, and it will do so without damaging and costly regulatory barriers arising between different parts of the UK.”
Sharma accused SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford of wanting to be “chained to the European Union forever”, to which Blackford replied: “You are talking nonsense.”
Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said the Labor Party supported the principle of the internal market, but opposed the bill that “violates the law.”
Business conversations
Meanwhile, the final round of post-Brexit trade talks began today, with negotiators from the British and EU sides meeting in Brussels to try to work out the final details of a plan to obtain the basic blueprints of a trade deal agreed earlier. the end of next month.
This week’s schedule of talks shows that the top three obstacles continue to occupy most of the time in the negotiations: a level playing field, governance issues and fisheries.
“There were small advances after the sixth or seventh round, but still the ideological is absolutely at odds with what was agreed in the political statement and that remains a major concern and does not appear to be changing,” Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond said.
Other topics to be discussed this week are energy, trade in goods and services, and law enforcement and judicial cooperation.
On the controversial bill that MPs just passed, and which threatens to overwrite elements of the Withdrawal Agreement related to Northern Ireland, Neale Richmond referred to a comparison of a “loaded revolver” on the negotiating table.
The UK had originally argued that the bill protects the peace process in Northern Ireland. But after the Irish government came out to refute that claim, the UK government maintains that it is only a last resort if the EU does not act in good faith.
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British Prime Minister Johnson argues that it will provide a “safety net” against what he claims are threats from the EU to impose tariffs on UK internal trade and carry out customs checks on goods ranging from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. North (what Johnson calls blocking).
Although the EU wants the three offending clauses removed from the bill by tomorrow, Richmond says this has not changed the ongoing trade negotiations, which will continue throughout this week.
But he added that the EU will seek “all legal options” if necessary.
Contains reports by Gráinne Ní Aodha
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