Northern Ireland Protocol is published.

The much-awaited Northern Ireland protocol Bill has just commenced its passage through parliament.

After a delayed start it was eventually published this evening, but at least it’s now here.

The Bill, if it is enacted, will give ministers sweeping powers to dis-apply parts or just about all of the Protocol, that is if Brussels does not agree to negotiate the problems away first.

It even gives the government power to remove ECJ jurisdiction over Northern Ireland.

This Bill will face heavy resistance across both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, with the most obvious but incorrect criticism being that it ‘breaks international law’.

However, the government is using the defence of ‘necessity’, a legal doctrine that allows one party not to perform treaty terms in certain exceptional and limited circumstances. With the Protocol basically trashing the Belfast Agreement it is easy to see that this doctrine applies.

Now, the Bill will face strong headwinds and could be tied up in the House of Lords for months - or even stopped there. Something that would then require a 12 month wait and a prorogation of parliament before it could be forced through.

Let’s see if the government has the vitamins to push it through.

And then use the powers it gives ministers as required to put the UK back together again!

Lester Taylor

UK Independence Party Spokesman for Brexit and Northern Ireland

Picture courtesy Whiteabbey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons