Opposition MPs demand full legal advice on Northern Ireland protocol bill
Opposition parties have demanded ministers release their full legal advice over a bill to unilaterally amend the Northern Ireland protocol that is expected imminently in the Commons, saying refusing to do so risked accusations of a cover-up.
The bill, which sets the UK on a potential collision course with the EU and which critics see as Boris Johnson’s latest attempt to mollify rebellious backbenchers and reassert his authority, is scheduled to be published on Monday afternoon.
Downing Street officials said the government had received full advice on whether a one-sided attempt to change the deal risked breaching international law, but that it only planned to publish a summary.
The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, said the bill was intended to protect the integrity of the Good Friday peace agreement and that when people saw the legislation they would understand it did not contravene international law.
Asked whether the full advice would be published, he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show only that the government would be “outlining our legal position”.
Quizzed three times about whether Sir James Eadie, the senior barrister whose role as first Treasury counsel involves giving ministers independent legal advice, had been asked about the bill, Lewis declined to say.
“I’m not going to get into the internals of government advice,” he said. Pressed further, he said: “The government lawyers are very clear that we are working within the law. The attorney general will be setting out the government’s position on that tomorrow.”
The shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Kyle, said the bill had “potential for malicious and rogue governments to interpret it as a green light for unilateral action against international
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