Liz Truss unveils plan for ‘revised’ Northern Ireland protocol, which MPs say could be illegal

Liz Truss set out plans Tuesday for a bill to create “a new revised protocol” in the next few weeks, less than three years after the UK agreed the Northern Ireland protocol with the EU.

The Foreign Secretary told MPs that the UK would prefer to negotiate a new version of the protocol, but that the difficult post-pandemic economy meant that it was prepared to act alone to get a faster result.

“Our intention is to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to make changes to the protocol,” Truss said. “Our preference remains a negotiated settlement, and we remain open to further talks if we can achieve the same outcome.”

The legislation would have the “explicit power to give effect to a new revised protocol”, to “ensure parity of esteem and the protection of economic rights”, Truss said.

Prior talks had failed to yield a solution because Brussels’ mandate does not allow for the protocol to be reopened, Truss said, although she has invited the European Commission’s vice-president Maroš Šefčovič to urgent talks in London.

“We are clear there is a necessity to act to ensure institutions can be restored as soon as possible,” she added.

But Stephen Doughty, Labour’s shadow foreign affairs minister, said Truss needed to “set out clearly to the House why this doesn’t break international law”.

But he called for “calm heads and responsible leadership”, saying that moving unilaterally risked causing a “downward spiral in our relationship with the EU” and could lead other countries to “question whether we can keep our end of the bargain”.

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Doughty said: “It is deeply troubling for the Foreign Secretary to be proposing a bill that would apparently break a treaty that the government itself signed just two years ago. That will not resolve issues in Northern Ireland in the long term and rather it would undermine trust and make a breakthrough more difficult.”

Responding, Truss said the government was “very clear this is legal in international law and we will be setting out our legal position in due course”.

Insider recently revealed that Suella Braverman, the attorney general who recently told Johnson to suspend “disloyal” MPs, had given the bill her legal backing.

Colum Eastwood, leader of the Northern Ireland’s SDLP, also questioned the legality of the move, saying: “It’s a very simple question – how can any international partner or any citizen of the north of Ireland ever trust this government again?”

It was not just opposition MPs who raised concerns about law-breaking. Simon Hoare, a Conservative backbencher and chairman of the Northern Ireland committee, said it was “extraordinary” that the government needed to be reminded of the need to uphold the law.

However, several pro-Brexit Tories, including Iain Duncan Smith, Mark Francois and Steve Baker, backed the statement.

DUP’s leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who sits in parliament as an MP, said the UK government’s plans were “a welcome if well overdue step”, and urged Truss to bring forward legislation “in days and weeks, not months”.

Despite Truss’ assurances to MPs that the UK’s plans would not impinge on the EU’s Single Market, the European Commission hit back while she was still speaking in the Commons.

Šefčovič said in a statement that such a unilateral move “raises significant concerns”.

He added: “Should the UK decide to move ahead with a bill disapplying constitutive elements of the Protocol as announced today by the UK government, the EU will need to respond with all measures at its disposal.”

Truss was speaking to MPs after the strategy was signed off at a Global Britain meeting earlier in the morning.

She also updated the Cabinet, alongside Boris Johnson, who told ministers that “it was clear all five parties in Northern Ireland wanted changes to how the protocol was currently operating”.

Johnson visited Belfast on Monday to meet the main party leaders there, including those of the DUP and Sinn Fein.

During his visit, Johnson gave a glimpse of some of the UK’s plans, saying: “We would love this to be done in a consensual way with our friends and partners, ironing out the problems, stopping some of these barriers east-west.

“But to get that done, to have the insurance, we need to proceed with a legislative solution as well.”

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