Brexit news – live: Justice secretary could resign if Boris Johnson’s bill breaks law in ‘unacceptable way’

Liberal Democrats are planning a four-year drive to woo “soft conservatives” repulsed by the “thuggish” values of the Tories under Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, the party’s new campaigning chief has revealed.

Speaking to The Independent in an interview to announce her election as deputy to leader Sir Ed Davey, Daisy Cooper said that the route out of the Lib Dems’ current electoral trough lay through appealing to voters who had always thought of themselves as conservatives but found the current government at odds with their values of competent governance, respect for the law, international alliances, civil liberties and protection of the environment.

Mr Johnson’s current threat to breach Britain’s obligations under international treaty law in his row with the EU was the latest in a chain of shocking acts which showed his party no longer represented the values of moderate voters, she said.

Andrew Woodcock reports:

PM accused of ‘inflammatory language’ and jeopardising Brexit trade negotiations

Ireland’s foreign minister has accused Boris Johnson of “inflammatory language” and jeopardising Brexit trade negotiations after Boris Johnson claimed the EU was threatening the integrity of the UK, Ashley Cowburn reports.

In response to the prime minister’s contentious proposals to override aspects over the Brexit agreement, Simon Coveney also urged the UK government to “behave as modern democracies should” and honour international agreements it had signed.

The comments came after Mr Johnson used a newspaper article to double down on plans to introduce legislation to disapply key parts of the EU withdrawal agreement if negotiations with the bloc over a future trading agreement collapse.

EU knows ‘perfectly well’ the situation on food standards rules, says Lord Frost

Downing Street’s chief negotiator Lord Frost has countered his EU counterpart’s dismissal of Boris Johnson’s warnings on food exports from Britain to Northern Ireland.

Lord Frost, saying he wanted to “state a few facts”, tweeted that the EU “knows perfectly well” the situation on food standards rules and said the bloc gives dozens of countries third-party listing “without any sort of commitment about the future”.

“Yet it has been made clear to us in the current talks that there is no guarantee of listing us. I am afraid it has also been said to us explicitly in these talks that if we are not listed we will not be able to move food to Northern Ireland,” he wrote.

“The EU’s position is that listing is needed for Great Britain only, not Northern Ireland. So if GB were not listed, it would be automatically illegal for NI to import food products from GB.”

It comes after EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier dismissed Boris Johnson’s assertion that the Northern Ireland Protocol could be used to break up the UK and denied the EU was refusing to list the UK as a third country for food imports.

Opinion: Why Britain must not become a law unto itself over Brexit

If the Internal Market Bill passes into law unchanged, it would represent an unprecedented, deliberate breach of a treaty obligation and of international law, according to former attorney general Dominic Grieve and ex-Tory MEP Sajjad Karim.  

And regardless of outcome, the government’s decision to seek to act in this way is a very bad moment for the reputation of our country, they write in this piece for Indy Voices. 

Liberal Democrats announce new deputy leader

The newly elected deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats has said the party must listen and win in every part of the UK.

Daisy Cooper, who the Liberal Democrats today announced has been unanimously elected to the role, has committed to building a “winning campaign machine”.

Ms Cooper, who won her St Albans seat for the Liberal Democrats in 2019 for the first time in the constituency’s history, will also continue in her role as the Liberal Democrats education spokeswoman.

The announcement follows the election of the Liberal Democrats’ new leader, Sir Ed Davey, last month.

Before becoming an MP last year, Ms Cooper worked for the cross-party movement More United and in Commonwealth affairs where she campaigned for improved LGBT+ rights abroad and against human rights abuses.

‘Trust between EU and UK has been damaged’

Ireland’s justice minister has said trust between the EU and UK has been damaged by the Internal Market Bill.

Helen McEntee added that proposed changes to the EU Withdrawal Agreement around all-island trade is causing a lot of confusion as she called for controversial aspects of the bill to be removed.

“What’s happened this week has certainly set us back,” she told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme.

“This is a deal that was reached, it was voted through the UK parliament nine months ago, it was voted through the European Parliament nine months ago and now this week one side of the agreement essentially has decided to unilaterally on its own change elements of that agreement so it’s posed some confusion, or a lot of confusion.

“I think it has in some ways damaged trust between both sides.”

Ms McEntee said legal action could happen due to the breach of an international agreement.

“What I would like to see, and I think the Irish government and the European Union would like to see, is that these particular measures as contained in the Internal Market Bill, that they are withdrawn and, most importantly, that we get back to the very important business of implementing what has already been agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement,” she said.

Labour will back PM’s brexit plan if he addresses ‘substantial concerns’

Sir Keir Starmer has committed Labour to back Boris Johnson’s new Brexit legislation if the prime minister addresses “substantial cross-party concerns”.

The Labour leader accused the PM of having “turned the clock back” and of “reigniting old rows” by working to override his own Withdrawal Agreement.

Sir Keir contended a free trade deal can still be struck with Brussels if negotiators from both sides “hunker down in good faith and break the logjam”.

Senior shadow minister Rachel Reeves confirmed Labour would vote against the UK Internal Market Bill as it stands with the party’s MP planning to table amendments.

But, writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Sir Keir said Labour could back the bill with substantial changes to help ministers “get on with Brexit”.

“Labour is prepared to play its part in making that happen. If the government fixes the substantial cross-party concerns that have been raised about the Internal Market Bill, then we are prepared to back it,” he wrote.

“But if they do not, and the talk collapse, then it is their failure and incompetence that will have let the British people down.”

DUP will attempt to amend Internal Market Bill

The DUP will attempt to amend the Internal Market Bill to ensure the UK sets the rules on state aid in Northern Ireland, PA reports.

The Northern Ireland Protocol sets out that EU state aid rules will apply to commerce.

State aid means a government cannot subsidise a product to allow it to be sold more cheaply in other parts of the EU to the potential detriment of businesses there.

The DUP’s Westminster chief whip Sammy Wilson lambasted former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair after they warned the UK’s latest proposals could undermine the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

He said: “The Internal Market Bill is far from perfect and that’s why we will table amendments to the Bill.

“The suggestion by the hero of the peace process brigade that the Bill rips apart the Belfast Agreement is complete and utter bunkum without any factual basis.

“They need to explain how making it easier for Northern Ireland to do business with our biggest market undermines the Belfast Agreement.

“They need to explain how Northern Ireland companies having less paperwork undermines the Belfast Agreement.

“They need to explain how our amendment which would ensure the UK sets the rules on state aid in Northern Ireland undermines the Belfast Agreement.

“Such a tool is vital to help us fend off predatory behaviour from our nearest competitor.”

Justice secretary hints he will quit if govt breaks law in ‘unacceptable way’

Robert Buckland has hinted he will quit as justice secretary if the government passes Brexit legislation that flouts international law, but added: “We are not at that stage”.

On the contentious plans put forward by Boris Johnson, the cabinet minister said the Internal Markets Bill, to be introduced in the Commons this week, was a “break the glass in emergency” provision if trade talks with the European Union collapse.

Earlier this week, Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, admitted the legislation, which seeks to override the Brexit withdrawal agreement, would break international law in a “limited and specific” way – provoking outrage among EU officials.

Political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has the full story:

UK government is behaving in ‘extraordinary way’, says Irish foreign minister

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said the UK government is behaving in an “extraordinary way” over the Internal Markets Bill.  

Speaking to The Andrew Marr Show, Mr Coveney also claimed the Boris Johnson and his ministers were damaging the reputation of Britain as a negotiating partner “in a very serious way”.  

He said: “By effectively saying to the EU ‘either give us what we want in these negotiations’, which essentially is something that is not consistent with what we’ve signed up to in an international treaty less than 12 months ago, ‘or we will pass legislation anyway to implement that’ – that is not the basis of a trusting relationship.  

“The British government, in my view, is behaving in an extraordinary way and British people need to know that because outside of Britain where this issue is being discussed now, the reputation of the UK and Britain as a trusted negotiating partner on important issues like this is being damaged in a very serious way.”