UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has accused British prime minister Boris Johnson of taking a “wrecking ball” to relations with Ireland and the EU with his controversial plan to unilaterally scrap aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
He was speaking during a visit to Dublin to meet senior Irish Government figures to discuss the deepening row over the post-Brexit trading arrangements. Mr Johnson’s government has revealed plans to introduce domestic legislation that would override parts of the protocol, with a Bill now expected to be published next week after a short delay was announced on Wednesday.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin this week warned that such a move would represent a “historic low point” in recent Anglo-Irish relations.
Mr Johnson has yet to decide whether the legislation should itself disapply the protocol’s central elements or only give ministers the power to do so. The British government hopes that publishing the Bill will persuade the DUP to agree to elect a speaker for the Northern Ireland Assembly as a first step towards restoring the Stormont institutions. But The Irish Times understands that the party will not elect a speaker if the British government introduces a Bill that offers ministers discretion about whether to override the protocol.
[ UK delays Bill to unilaterally scrap parts of NI protocolOpens in new window ]
Speaking at Trinity College Dublin, Mr Starmer said: “As someone who cares deeply about the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, I’m concerned about the comments that have been made.
“Of course there are challenges with the protocol, but I think that we have faced much greater challenges than that in our shared history and I think we can deal with the remaining issues.
“We’ve faced bigger problems than this. With good faith, statecraft and trust around the negotiating table, which is what a Labour government would bring, these problems can be overcome. But a prime minister without those attributes taking a wrecking ball to the relationship is not going to help anybody.
“Trust is very important in all of this and this Prime Minister does not have the trust, or I fear he doesn’t have the trust, to negotiate in the way that I actually think would lead to a solution to the problems.”
Upholding international law
Post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland will dominate discussions when the Labour leader meets Irish political leaders later.
Regarding the UK government plans to unilaterally scrap parts of the protocol, he said his party believed in upholding international law.
“There are challenges that need to be overcome but I start, and the Labour Party starts, with the principle that we believe in and will always uphold the Good Friday Agreement, and we believe in and will abide by international law,” he added.
“The single biggest barrier at the moment is a Prime Minister who doesn’t have those attributes, who is distracted, is divided, he’s doing everything he can to save his own skin rather than focusing on the issue here, which is how do we get people around negotiating table, flexibility on both sides so we can overcome the remaining problems.”
On Friday, the Labour leader will be in Belfast to meet political leaders in Stormont, where he is expected to call for compromise and negotiation to end the political deadlock over the return of the powersharing Executive.
Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney warned that the EU’s position on the protocol has “hardened” in the face of the UK threat of unilateral action.
Speaking on his way into Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Mr Coveney said: “My message to the British government is a very clear one: if you are genuinely interested in negotiated solutions to these problems… well then let’s see some evidence as to a willingness to negotiate seriously those solutions through compromise, through flexibility.”
He said the European Commission had shown flexibility and wants to do more, but “needs a partner” to do so. He urged Westminster to call a halt to planned legislation to override parts of the post-Brexit deal, agreed by Mr Johnson.
“Publishing this legislation will cause a lot more problems than it solves, not just between Britain and Ireland but between the UK and the EU more generally,” he told reporters.
He said he did not think there was “a single capital across the EU and anyb
ody in the European Commission that believes, at the moment anyway, that the British government is serious about a negotiated solution, because there is no signal coming from London that they are”.
“Instead all of the signals are about unilateral action, making demands with no willingness to compromise, and that has hardened the EU response to what they’re seeing coming out of London now.
“So, we need to find a way to arrest this rot in relationships and instead to look to compromise, to negotiation, to dialogue, to solve what are genuine issues and concerns.”
Proposals are legal
Mr Johnson on Wednesday denied the Government had failed to consult one of its senior legal advisers over plans to unilaterally scrap elements of the protocol. He rejected the claim that first treasury counsel James Eadie, the government’s independent barrister on major legal issues, had not been asked to give a view on whether the bill due to be tabled at Westminster would breach international law.
Answering an urgent question on the issue in the Commons on Thursday, foreign office minister James Cleverly refused to directly say whether Mr Eadie was consulted on the plans, citing a convention not to discuss legal advice
[ Newton Emerson: Donaldson finds himself hoist on DUP petardOpens in new window ]
given to government. However, Mr Cleverly insisted the government was “confident” that its proposals are legal.
“The Government is confident that our actions are lawful under international law and in line with longstanding convention that we do not set out internal legal deliberations,” he said.
Earlier, former taoiseach John Bruton said any move by Britain to override the protocol would be “gravely serious” and would set a would set a “dreadful precedent” in international relations,
“Remember we are at war. There is a war taking place in Ukraine because Russia is breaking a treaty guaranteeing the territorial integrity of Ukraine. And Britain is supporting Ukraine in that. And yet, at the very same time, they are proposing to break a treaty concerning their nearest neighbour Ireland and the European Union which they freely negotiated and indeed which was endorsed in the Conservative party manifesto of 2019 where it was described as a ‘great new deal.’ Boris Johnson said there would be no more re negotiation. Now he wants to not just re negotiate it. He wants to break it,” the former Fine Gael leader told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland,
Mr Bruton indicated that the EU cannot ignore what is happening in the UK parliament because the proposals being made on the protocol would destroy the single market. He said certain elements in the UK parliament also want Northern Ireland to have access to the EU Single Market without any EU rules on state aid. - Additional reporting PA
