The withdrawal agreement that Boris Johnson’s government negotiated with the EU included a “protocol” designed to protect peace in Northern Ireland, as enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement.
In order to maintain peace along the border with the Republic of Ireland and, in particular, avoid a so-called “hard border” with infrastructure, the two sides agreed that necessary paperwork would be carried out on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from England, Wales or Scotland, rather than at the Irish land border.
The plan would allow Brussels to trust that goods entering NI which might later cross the porous frontier into the Republic met its standards.
However, if Westminster fails to secure a Brexit deal, that regulatory border in the Irish Sea would become one across which tariffs would have to be paid, cleaving the UK’s internal market in two.
Into this fraught situation Mr Johnson has introduced his internal market bill, which seeks to allow goods to be traded on even terms between all four UK nations. However, the controversial measure would allow ministers to rewrite the rules previously enshrined in the withdrawal agreement, including on the movement of goods in Northern Ireland.
Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, admitted the bill would breach international law in a “specific and limited way”, and it has drawn widespread criticism.
It could mean that the EU feels it necessary to implement checks on the Irish land border – the very scenario the protocol was designed to prevent. UK MPs have warned MI5 that a hard border would increase the terror threat.
