British MPs vote to reintroduce international law-breaking clauses in Internal Market Bill

 

British MPs vote to reintroduce international law-breaking clauses in Internal Market Bill

 

Bill will now return to the House of Lords on Wednesday.

 

BY ANDREW MCDONALD

December 7, 2020 11:54 pm

https://www.politico.eu/article/british-mps-vote-to-reintroduce-international-law-breaking-clauses-in-internal-market-bill/

 

British MPs voted tonight to reinsert the most controversial clauses in the government's draft Internal Market Bill, on the same day the U.K. appeared to concede on the same clauses as an olive branch to Brussels.

 

The bill — which breaks international law by allowing ministers to unilaterally override the Northern Ireland protocol agreed with Brussels as part of last year's Brexit Withdrawal Agreement — was heavily amended in November by the U.K.'s second chamber, the unelected House of Lords.

 

Peers defeated the government on multiple occasions to remove the clauses that allow the U.K. to undermine the Withdrawal Agreement.

 

Among those to attack the bill in the Lords and vote against the government were former Conservative leader Michael Howard, who backed Brexit in 2016 but said he wanted the "independent, sovereign state" he voted for to keep its word and "uphold the rule of law."

 

The House of Commons voted Monday to remove the amendments proposed by the Lords and return the bill to its original state.

 

The government emerged with a majority of more than 80 in each vote — another comfortable parliamentary endorsement of a bill that has seen Brussels, peers and the U.K.'s devolved nations react with fury.

 

Earlier Monday, the government compromised slightly to lessen the fury of the former, as Brexit future relationship talks continue without fruition. After a meeting of the EU-U.K. Joint Committee which oversees the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, the U.K. said that if the committee can put in place a resolution that alleviates the government's concerns about Northern Ireland they would be prepared to remove the most controversial law-breaking clauses in the bill.

 

Introducing the debate in the Commons, Business Minister Paul Scully said the government was keen to "work in partnership" with the European Union as negotiations continue but that the controversial clauses in the bill were necessary with no deal yet reached.

 

Scully added: "While we are hopeful of success, it is only prudent that until such a time as these discussions have successfully concluded, we retain these clauses in their current form as a fallback option."

 

Replying for the opposition Labour party, Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband claimed the government could not be trusted to keep their word.

 

"I am not going to give the government any credit for [the joint committee statement], and I do not take their word for it either," he said. "The one thing that this whole sorry saga has shown the world beyond any doubt is that this government’s word is not their bond — they cannot be trusted, because they are willing to rip up international agreements they made less than a year ago."

 

The bill will now return to the Lords on Wednesday. The controversial clauses will likely be removed again — meaning that if there is no agreement with Brussels by then, MPs will be given a chance to go through all of this again in the Commons on Thursday.