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The government will reinstate any part of its Brexit legislation that violates international law and is removed by the House of Lords, a cabinet minister promised.
The UK’s Internal Market Act, which has been condemned by critics both in Westminster and abroad, seeks to allow ministers to overturn the Withdrawal Agreement signed with the EU.
But the proposed legislation will suffer a heavy defeat in the House of Lords on Monday, when their peers consider the most controversial parts of the bill.
Labor warned that the UK could become an “international pariah” if the bill is passed in full.
Joe Biden warned that the Good Friday Agreement will become a ‘victim’ of Brexit
A new parliamentary dispute over the legislation is likely to be closely watched again in the US, where President-elect Joe Biden has previously warned that the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement became a “victim” of Brexi.
The Financial Times reported that Biden would emphasize this point during his first call with the prime minister. Boris johnson in the days to come.
However, Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News that the government would strongly support his legislation.
When asked if ministers would immediately reinstate any of the provisions in the bill that the House of Lords could remove, Eustice replied: “We will.
“The UK Internal Market Bill is not about undermining the Belfast Accord, it is about supporting it and making sure it works and looking out for Northern Ireland’s interests, ensuring that the peace that has been won there with so much effort I can continue.
“The limited number of areas in which we assume power, subject to parliament agreeing to this, in order to create clarity and legal certainty in case there are areas where the Joint Committee process in our negotiations with the EU cannot agree.
“We have to provide that legal certainty and clarity, and that’s all the bill does.”
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Lord Falconer, the shadow attorney general for Labor, called the government’s argument that the bill is necessary to protect the Good Friday Agreement as “absolute and obvious nonsense.”
He told Sky News: “I would recommend that the government stop and think.
“What’s the point in making the UK an international pariah just as a new US president emerges who says’ I not only want the British government to comply with the Northern Ireland Protocol, I want a world ‘?
“Becoming an international outsider, someone who ranks low on the list of people the US will want to do business with is a big mistake for the UK.”
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Lord Falconer said the House of Lords was “doing the government a favor by trying to remove these provisions that violate the law.”
“Get the government out of a bind; I’d suggest the government stop digging, they’re in a big hole,” he added.
