British officials are prepared to water down British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial lawbreaking Brexit legislation in a move that could revive failing talks with the EU, according to people familiar with the matter.
Negotiations over the two sides’ future relationship have stalled, with the prime minister announcing on Friday that he would focus on preparations to leave the EU’s single market and customs union at the year-end without a trade deal — although he is still open to talks if the bloc changes its stance.
One obstacle negotiators face is rebuilding the trust that was badly damaged by Johnson’s UK Internal Market Bill, which rewrites parts of the Brexit withdrawal deal he struck with the EU last year.
Photo: Reuters
The bloc is taking legal action against the UK, and European leaders have demanded that Johnson drop the controversial clauses relating to trade with Northern Ireland as the price of any wider accord.
So far, the prime minister has refused, but his officials believe parliament will force his hand when members of the House of Lords remove the clauses that would breach international law.
The bill was scheduled to begin its progress through the Lords yesterday. Members are unlikely to reject it entirely, but are certain to take out the most controversial parts in the weeks ahead, people familiar with the government’s position said.
That would force Johnson to decide how hard to fight to keep the clauses.
The people said they expected Johnson to drop, or dilute, the most difficult sections of the law if he secures an overarching trade deal with the EU, potentially as part of the negotiations with the bloc.
One person suggested the bill was always a negotiating tactic, while another said ministers would be ready to agree to add extra guarantees to dilute the most contentious powers in the bill, which might not be needed if a new EU deal can be struck.
The bill gives UK ministers power to unilaterally rewrite the rules of trade with Northern Ireland.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove was scheduled to hold talks yesterday over the issues covered by the new law in a joint committee meeting with European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic.
Johnson’s chief negotiator, UK Head of Taskforce Europe David Frost, is also due this week to discuss the state of play with EU Head of Task Force for Relations with the UK Michel Barnier.
In a round of broadcast interviews on Sunday, Gove said that the door was still “ajar” for talks, but he was less hopeful than he had been in recent weeks that a new trade deal would be reached.
British Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick yesterday called on the EU to show more “flexibility.”
“Unless something changes, unless they are willing to come back to us and show that degree of flexibility and maturity, we will leave ... and trade on the sorts of arrangements that Australia has,” Jenrick told Sky News. “It would be sensible at this point for them to go that extra mile, to come closer to us.”
In related news, the top Anglican archbishops in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland yesterday warned that Johnson’s proposed bill would set a “disastrous precedent” and could undermine peace in Northern Ireland.
In a letter in the Financial Times, they said the bill “asks the country’s highest law-making body to equip a government minister to break international law. This has enormous moral, as well as political and legal, consequences.”
“We believe this would create a disastrous precedent,” said the letter, signed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who heads the Church of England, and four other archbishops. “If carefully negotiated terms are not honored and laws can be ‘legally’ broken, on what foundations does our democracy stand?”
Additional reporting by AP
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