“This is about trust”: Labour slams Tories over Northern Ireland Brexit plans

Labour has slammed the government over its leaked Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland and said that the people of the UK and the country’s international partners will be unable to trust the government if it reneges on its obligations.

Responding to an urgent question tabled by Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Louise Haigh this afternoon, Brandon Lewis defended reports of plans to give British ministers unilateral powers in the region.

Following widespread concerns that the proposals would violate the Northern Ireland protocol, Haigh today accused the Prime Minister of: “Once again using Northern Ireland as a political football to suit his wider political means.”

Commenting on the agreement reached last October to prevent a hard border, Haigh said: “The protocol was not foisted on the Prime Minister… [He] personally renegotiated it, campaigned on it, legislated for it, ratified it in an international treaty.”

She added: “This is about trust. How can the people of Northern Ireland trust this government with the careful progress made over the last two decades when they tell them the protocol is necessary to protect it and then suggest it undermines it?

“How can the British people trust the government who swore they have an ‘oven-ready’ deal only ten months ago and now tell them that deal was ambiguous and contradictory?

“And how can our partners and allies now trust us to enter trade negotiations and multilateral arrangements.”

In response to the urgent question, Lewis told the House that the government is committed to implementing the withdrawal agreement and has taken “many practical steps to do so”.

He argued that “this government has repeatedly said that people in Northern Ireland will have unfettered access to the whole of the UK market… the approach that we will take in this legislation builds on that commitment”.

The new powers for ministers to make unilateral decisions in Northern Ireland will be set out in the internal market bill and the finance bill. The internal market bill is due to be published on Wednesday.

Lewis added: “We are working had to resolve any outstanding issues through the joint committee and will continue to approach those discussions in good faith. But we are taking limited and reasonable steps to create a safety net.”

Responding to a follow-up question from backbench Tory Bob Neill, the Secretary of State admitted that the clauses providing ministers with certain powers under the new legislation would breach international obligations.

The minister said: “Yes, this does break international law in a specific and very limited way. We are taking the power to disapply the EU law concept of direct effect required by article four in certain very tightly defined circumstances.”

Referring to the Finance Act 2013, he added: “There are clear precedents for the UK and indeed other countries needing to consider their international obligations as circumstances change.”

Reacting to this comment by the government representative, Labour’s Andrew Gwynne said: “I’m astounded the minister has just conceded that he’s proposing to break international law.

“This is a question of trust when it comes to signing international treaties. We can’t condemn others for seemingly breaking the international rules-based order if you’re prepared to do the same.

“It is incredibly damaging to our reputation as we seek to acquire trade treaties.”

According to reports this week, aspects of the legislation being introduced in parliament this week would “eliminate the legal force of parts of the withdrawal agreement” – including state aid and Northern Ireland customs.

Under the withdrawal agreement, Northern Ireland is set to remain in the single market regardless of whether the wider UK has a deal on trade and security with the EU by the end of the year.

If the UK does not reach an agreement on trade with the European bloc, the EU’s codes on goods coming into Northern Ireland will still be required, necessitating checks at the border.

The internal markets bill seeks to narrowly define the obligation to notify Brussels of subsidy decisions for it to approve and could dispense with the requirement for local businesses to file customs paperwork when exporting to the rest of the UK.

A No 10 spokesperson has said that the measures being introduced by the government are “limited and reasonable” and insisted that the UK would remain compliant with the Northern Ireland protocol.