Brexit: Government minister admits new bill will violate international law
A top government minister today admitted that plans to amend the Brexit bill will break international law, but insisted it would only do so in a “very specific and limited way”.
Concerns have been raised that proposed legislation for Britain’s internal market could undermine parts of the withdrawal agreement, which was negotiated last year.
Asked today whether the plans would breach international law, Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis admitted it would go against the treaty but played down the implications.
“We are taking the powers to disapply the EU law concept of direct effect required by article 4 in a certain, very tightly defined circumstance,” he said in the Commons.
“There are clear precedents for the UK and indeed other countries needing to consider their international obligations as circumstances change.”
It came after former prime minister Theresa May made a rare intervention today, quizzing the government on whether it can be trusted by future international partners to fully implement legal treaties.
Her remarks come at a time when the government faces pressure to confirm it will not move to reinterpret the Northern Ireland protocol.
The Maidenhead MP routinely hits the headlines whenever she addresses the Commons since leaving Downing Street.
May said: “The UK government signed the withdrawal agreement with the Northern Ireland protocol, this parliament voted that withdrawal agreement into UK legislation.
“The government is now changing the operation of that agreement. Given that, how can the government reassure future international partners that the UK can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations of the agreements it signs?”
In the chamber this afternoon, Tory lines were clearly drawn out on whether the government should move to override parts of the withdrawal agreement.
Alongside May, three select committee chairs — including justice committee chair Sir Bob Neil — urged against this proposal.
However, former party leader Iain Duncan Smith said the government was acting in compliance with the law.
In addition to a split within government, the mooted changes have caused fractures within Whitehall.
Earlier today the head of the government’s legal department Jonathan Jones resigned amid reports of a row with Downing Street over the planned Brexit amendments.
He is the sixth senior civil service official to resign this year as Prime Minister Boris Johnson locks horns with mandarins