Conservative Party erupts over Northern Ireland Protocol

Downing Street was rocked this morning by the sudden resignation of Jonathan Jones, the head of the government’s legal department, over plans to change the EU Withdrawal Agreement’s Northern Ireland Protocol using British law, which some have argued would dishonour an international treaty.

The Financial Times reports that Jones could not support the plans on the basis that they may breach the ministerial code requiring members of the Cabinet to follow both domestic and international law. He is also understood to have had a strained relationship with Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, over her interpretation of the legal implications of leaving the EU without an agreement.

Jones becomes the sixth senior Whitehall official to leave government this year, following the resignations of figures such as Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, and Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office Permanent Secretary. These changes may speed up Dominic Cummings’ planned reforms for the civil service, but they have also raised concerns within the Conservative party concerning government ineptitude.

In the Commons today, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis appeared to confirm leaks of the plans, saying the government will take “limited and reasonable steps to create a safety net.” It is believed this will include commitments against conducting any checks on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, which would make it difficult for the EU to maintain the integrity of the Single Market.

Brandon Lewis even said – perhaps in a slip of the tongue but nonetheless on the record – that “yes, this does break international law in a very specific and limited way.”

The Northern Ireland Secretary’s statement was badly received by former Prime Minister Theresa May. “The United Kingdom government signed the Withdrawal Agreement with the Northern Ireland Protocol,” she said. “This parliament voted that Withdrawal Agreement into UK legislation. The government is now changing the operation of that agreement. Given that, how can the government reassure future international partners that the UK can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations of the agreements it signs?”

May’s intervention gave credence to the argument, put forward by EU officials, that  unilaterally redefining the Withdrawal Agreement would cause damage to Britain’s reputation which would hurt Downing Street – and the country – in the long run. Some have suggested that countries with which the UK is in negotiations for trade deals could claim to distrust the British government’s international commitments in order to extract additional concessions.

A similar message has been repeated by other senior Conservative backbenchers. Tobias Ellwood, Chair of the Defence Select Committee, tweeted: “Britain’s soft power and respected voice on the international stage comes from our duty and resolve to defend and uphold international laws. This cannot change as we secure Brexit – otherwise our stance in holding China/Russia/Iran to account and upgrading the rules based order is severely weakened.”

Theresa May and Tobias Ellwood may therefore vote against a crucial piece of government legislation on the basis that it violates international norms, which would be a major embarrassment regardless of the government’s majority. It would also be a boon to the SNP, who are already opposed to the legislation because they believe it doesn’t sufficiently devolve former EU powers to Holyrood.

The UK Internal Market Bill is set to be published tomorrow morning, with an official response from EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier expected soon afterwards. Breaking the silence from the Commission over this issue, Barnier will likely be forcefully condemnatory. This will come as the eighth round of trade talks continue in London. They are not expected to produce fruitful results without an extraordinary concession from one or both sides.

Those hoping for movement from the EU have been boosted by an apparent willingness in Paris to bring the negotiations into the political arena in order to break the deadlock. President Emmanuel Macron, who has been characterised as wanting to punish Britain, reached out to Boris Johnson yesterday evening, and the pair seemed to have had a constructive conversation.

“Very good discussion with Boris Johnson. We will step up our cooperation against migrant smugglers. We discussed steps to take following the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the situation in Lebanon and the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom,” the President tweeted.

Downing Street hopes that German and French politicians will be more sympathetic to its arguments on the need for full sovereignty on state aid, given the task of tackling the economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis and accounting for the fact that both countries already spend two-to-three times more than the UK in subsidies. But with around a month left for negotiations to conclude in time for formal ratification, there will have to be some significant movement soon from both sides.