Brexit, Johnson agrees with the rebel conservatives. But the EU is not enough

LONDON – The rebellion against the prime minister of many conservative colleagues, who wanted to defend the honor of the British and the homeland of the “rule of law”, is now over. Because Boris Johnson has already stifled it today, with a deal with dozens of conservatives who initially did not accept his controversial “Internal Market Law.” Which, as the British government has admitted, violates international treaties, specifically the legally binding divorce agreement on Brexit that Johnson himself signed the same autumn together with the European Union.

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The agreement was reached overnight after two days of negotiations between the parties. The rebels, led by Congressman Sir Bob Neill, wanted Parliament to have the final say on any government decision to violate Brexit, should it be necessary. Johnson complimented them, incorporating from the government the amendment that Neill along with other rebels such as former Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid and possibly also former Prime Minister Theresa May as well, planned to present next week.

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However, this reshuffle in the majority of Johnson’s government does not resolve the ongoing stalemate in negotiations for future EU-UK relations, which have been underway for a year and currently have no solution. For two reasons. First of all because the prime minister has a large majority in Parliament (80 deputies) and it is unlikely that the House of Commons will rebel against his possible violation of the divorce agreement signed with Europe last fall and included in the “Law Internal Market “. Under the law Johnson wants to pass, the UK would primarily ignore two crucial parts of that pact, namely preventive customs checks on all goods going from the UK to Northern Ireland (and vice versa), which is thought and signed to preserve the peace between the two Irish (today without a physical border) and to protect the integrity of the European single market. And then also the state aid scheme in Northern Ireland, which according to that divorce agreement must follow the rules of the European Union for at least 4 years (again to preserve the status quo in Northern Ireland). All of which Johnson resolutely took his word for it two weeks ago, arguing that as is the agreement (which he signed ten months ago) it would break the UK, which was the main reason why a similar version offered by “Europe was rejected by its predecessor Theresa May two years ago.

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Furthermore, even with the last word in the British Parliament, Europe will not budge from its position, namely that of taking legal action against the UK if the Johnson government does not withdraw the entire “internal market bill” within late September. This is because for the EU it would only change the final author of the violation of international law (from the executive to the British Parliament) and not the content of the “serious action” carried out by the Johnson government. In all this, Brexit will come true on December 31 and an agreement between the two blocks is still far away.