Hansard

When I was first sworn into the Parliament, I would never have thought that we would discuss a bill that would actively break international law. The Tories’ Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will not only break international law, but further damage the UK’s global reputation as a trusted partner, risk worsening the cost of living crisis by throwing up further barriers to trade, and create further divisions at a time when we need to get on with our neighbours in Europe and pull together in the face of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The terms of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill and the Northern Ireland protocol should come as no surprise to Boris Johnson and his Conservative Government, because they negotiated the protocol. They agreed it and whipped their MPs to vote for it. The Northern Ireland protocol is a product of the Prime Minister and his Conservative UK Government, and the fact that they are now seeking to usurp it demonstrates their incompetence, past and present. What confidence can we have in a Government that cannot get the job done right first time around?

I was struck by the Foreign Secretary yesterday telling the Belfast Telegraph that she has no regrets in voting for the protocol at the time, and that the issues that have arisen were unexpected, even though she now says that the problems were “baked into the protocol”. It begs the question as to what work the Conservatives did to look at a protocol that the Foreign Secretary now thinks is disastrous. What kind of risk assessment did they do?

I agree with key points in the Scottish Government motion. My amendment, which adds to it, focuses on the fact that the UK Government’s bill will break international law.

Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states:

“A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty.”

The bill does exactly that. In the bill, the Tories are seeking to unilaterally override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol through UK domestic law.

It is ironic that I agree with Donald Cameron’s suggestion that the UK Government and the EU should get round the table to negotiate. The bill will not help with that.

There is an issue with the legal principle of the doctrine of necessity, which we may come on to later in the debate, but it is clear that the doctrine of necessity applies only when a country is facing grave and imminent peril. The UK Government’s former legal adviser Jonathan Jones has already said that the EU would be completely unpersuaded by that argument. The bill shows that, once again, the Tory Government is totally detached from the real issues of the day, and is hellbent on furthering its own political agenda, with no regard for the reputational risks to which it is opening up our country. It speaks volumes that the former Prime Minister Theresa May warned that unilateral attempts to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland protocol and the Brexit deal are not legal.

Article 16 of the protocol allows the UK or the EU to invoke restricted safeguard measures unilaterally when serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties arise because of the operation of the protocol. I agree with Donald Cameron—it is time for the UK Government and the EU to get round the table and talk about the issue. The analysis of Mark Elliott, a professor of public law at the University of Cambridge, is that the UK Government’s legal position paper shows that it has no intention of using that provision.

The Northern Ireland protocol was put in place to ensure that the Tory agreement on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU protected the Good Friday agreement. To date, far too many Tory MPs have shown complete disregard for the Good Friday agreement in the Brexit process, and we can see that here from the very top of the UK Tory Government.

Scottish Labour will not support legislation that not only does not respect international law, but threatens the hard-won Good Friday agreement. Negotiation is needed. The irony is that although the Tory party claims to stand for businesses, businesses in Northern Ireland have been able to work with the protocol. The bill risks creating new barriers during a cost of living crisis, and it will only bring more uncertainty for the people of Northern Ireland, who are trying to make the protocol work in the best way that they can. Surely it is far better to negotiate on food and agricultural standards than to raise trade barriers.

The bill would break international law and have a devastating impact on families and businesses in Northern Ireland, Scotland and across the UK. The UK Government must focus on negotiation with the EU. That is the route to ensuring that international law is respected and the Good Friday agreement is protected. The UK Government must get round the table with the EU and negotiate in good faith.

I move amendment S6M-05235.3, to insert after “recession”:

“; condemns that the Bill breaks international law and risks the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement”.