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Former Prime Minister David Cameron has “doubts” about the government’s plan to overturn the UK’s Brexit withdrawal agreement.
The government has admitted that its UK internal market bill could violate international law, but has insisted that it is “essential” to ensure unlimited access for goods from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK.
But the proposed legislation has sparked a storm of anger in both Westminster and Brussels over the plan to give ministers the power to alter key elements of the UK Withdrawal Agreement, which was formally signed by the Prime Minister. Boris johnson in January.
Boris Johnson’s plan has sparked a storm of anger in Westminster and Brussels
Mr cameron on Monday he became the fourth former Conservative leader, after Lord Howard, Sir John Major and Theresa May, to express concern over Johnson’s plan.
His comments mean that all five living former Prime Ministers, including former Labor Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, as well as Sir John and Mrs May, have now spoken out against the government’s proposals.
He said: “Passing a parliamentary law and then breaking an international treaty obligation is the last thing you should contemplate.
“It should be an absolute final resource. So I have doubts about what is being proposed.”
However, Cameron also added: “So far what has happened is that the government has proposed a law that it could pass, or not pass, or it could use or not use, depending on whether certain circumstances appear or not.”
“Of course, the bigger picture here is that we are in a vital negotiation with the EU to reach an agreement and I think we have to keep that context, that grand prize in mind, and that is why perhaps I have refrained from say more. for now. “
Over the weekend, UK chief negotiator Lord Frost accused the EU of threatening “explicitly” in trade talks that Britain would not be able to move food to Northern Ireland.
However, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said that Brussels “does not refuse” to include the UK as a third country for food imports, although he has called for “more clarity” on food safety measures and UK plant and animal health.
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Government Minister Kit Malthouse told Sky News that if the EU does not list the UK as a third country for food imports, then “we could be in a position where Britain’s food exports to Northern Ireland they could be illegal. “
“No prime minister, it seems to me, can contemplate such a situation,” he told Kay Burley’s show.
MPs will debate the UK internal market bill in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon, and several Conservative MPs are expected to rebel against the legislation.
There has also been outrage among Brexit conservatives, with former Attorney General Geoffrey Cox condemning the government’s plan as “unconscionable”.
But Malthouse, the police minister, said he “has not yet heard from the people who oppose this bill what their solution to this problem would be.”
“Tesco, in theory, could not supply the shelves in Northern Ireland,” he added.
“That is a situation we never expected to present itself to us.”
He admitted “in theory” that the proposed legislation could violate international law, but that international law could “adapt” to such a scenario.
“In circumstances where the EU was seeking to prevent GB food exports to Northern Ireland, I think it would be perfectly legitimate for us to do so,” he said.
“Saying ‘that is not within our sovereign rights and therefore we have the right to supply food to that part of the country.’
“I think those circumstances … international law would adapt to that.”
Labor peer Lord Hain, a former Northern Ireland secretary, told Sky News that the use of “bombast” and the government’s proposal to annul the Withdrawal Agreement “ruined our reputation around the world.”
“Britain cannot have a situation where we give our word and then break it,” he said.
“It completely destroys our position in the world.”
