Brussels ‘very concerned’; Scotland, Wales say bill threatens UK’s unity

AFP, London
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused yesterday of presiding over a "rogue state" as his government introduced legislation that intentionally breaches its EU withdrawal treaty in the messy countdown to a full Brexit divorce.

Johnson defended the government's approach after its extraordinary admission that the new bill governing post-Brexit trade in Britain and Northern Ireland breaks international law.

Asked why the British public at large should respect any laws now, the prime minister told parliament: "We expect everybody in this country to obey the law."

In a bad-tempered exchange with Scottish nationalist MP Ian Blackford, Johnson insisted the bill was about "protecting jobs, protecting growth, ensuring the fluidity and safety of our UK internal market".

The government maintains its new UK Internal Market Bill is needed to smooth trade between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and help power a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, once a post-Brexit transition ends this year.

But under its EU Withdrawal Treaty, Britain is meant to liaise with Brussels on any arrangements for Northern Ireland, which saw three decades of bloodshed until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and will become the UK's only land border with the EU.

Blackford argued the new bill was a power-grab by London from the devolved administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

"The prime minister and his friends, a parcel of rogues, are creating a rogue state," he added.

Lewis's admission Tuesday provoked incredulity across the political spectrum in Britain, Brussels and beyond, just as British and EU negotiators are engaged in fraught talks to agree a new trading relationship by a crunch EU summit in mid-October.

Scotland and Wales said the British government's internal market bill will undermine the United Kingdom by stealing powers from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon described the UK government's new bill as "a full frontal assault on devolution" that would steal powers from Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. She suggested the bill would strengthen the case for Scottish independence.

Reaction to the bill was equally negative in Cardiff, where it was described as a threat to the ties binding the four parts of the United Kingdom together.