The Guardian view on the Northern Ireland protocol bill: provocative and needless
At the recent Stormont elections, a majority of voters supported parties that broadly back the Northern Ireland protocol. Local business leaders have urged Boris Johnson to abandon the threat to unilaterally tear parts of it up, which would risk a trade war with the European Union when inflation rates are soaring and recession is looming. Sadly, what is truly best for Northern Ireland has rarely been allowed to disrupt this government’s choreographed games of Brexit brinkmanship with Brussels.
Tuesday’s Commons statement on the protocol by the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, was more measured in tone than some of the confrontational briefings around last week. But the tabling of a bill to abandon aspects of a treaty signed less than three years ago – when it was described as “oven-ready” – is irresponsible and recklessly destabilising. Ms Truss airily stated that the proposed legislation would not be in breach of international law, but failed to offer any evidence for that assertion. The EU was swift to warn that whatever legal casuistry may be forthcoming, it could respond to such a move with “all measures at its disposal”, which could mean shelving the entire post-Brexit free trade deal.
The government’s disingenuous case is that relations between the British mainland and Northern Ireland have been excessively undermined by the checks, tariffs and regulations insisted upon by the EU. It cites the refusal of the Democratic Unionist party to take up a power-sharing role alongside Sinn Féin as evidence that the Good Friday agreement is being imperilled by unionist discontent. This situation is, of course, directly the result of commitments made by Mr Johnson in 2019, when his priority was to force a hard Brexit. To avoid a
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