Politics live: UK ‘will not shy away’ from taking steps on NI protocol, says minister; Streeting says Starmer will be ‘vindicated’ over lockdown beers – Sky News
There won’t be a Northern Ireland Bill in the Queen’s Speech, as sources say big decisions ‘not yet taken’
With the assembly elections in Northern Ireland focusing minds, ministers have said it is urgent that the Brexit arrangements are changed.
But while the government is likely to reassert its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement tomorrow, I understand that an explosive move to override the Northern Ireland Protocol altogether will not be specifically outlined in the Queen’s Speech tomorrow.
The big decisions on this – to rip up the Northern Ireland deal unilaterally or not – “have not yet been taken”, I’m told by a senior source.
This is a Brexit hangover that can’t be shaken off: Boris Johnson secured his deal by signing up to what is effectively a trade border in the Irish sea.
The Democratic Unionist Party, who supported Brexit, were thrown into turmoil and last week as they lost their majority at Stormont to Sinn Fein, whose goal is a united Ireland.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, has been urging caution, saying last week: “Our focus is on resolving the issues with the protocol, ideally we want to do that by agreement with the European Union.”
But Sky News understands that Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, who is now the UK’s Brexit negotiator too, is minded to rip it unilaterally. She is of the view that the situation in Northern Ireland is urgent and, unless the EU shifts its position, the government must act.
She will speak again to commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic in the coming days, but he said over the weekend that “The EU has already shown a lot of flexibility… we need the UK Government to dial down the rhetoric, be honest about the deal they signed and agree to find solutions within its framework.”
The government may also have a job on its hands convincing some Tories to vote for such a move.
In December 2020, the government withdrew plans to override the Brexit deal – which would have broken international law – after unlocking progress on a trade deal with the EU.
One senior Tory, who is not a known rebel, called the latest Northern Ireland plan a rehash of the previous one “on acid”. They added: “I’ve made clear I won’t be voting for it”.
The government may try to argue that it is not a breach of the law, because the deal itself undermines the Good Friday Agreement. But it would still mean confrontation with the EU and in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the cross-community Alliance are in favour of the protocol.
