Truss: Northern Ireland Bill "reasonable [and] practical measures for problems" Foreign secretary Liz Truss has made comments alongside the bill being published. She said it will support the Good Friday agreement, and measures were “reasonable [and] practical”. She said: “This bill will uphold the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and support political stability in Northern Ireland. It will end the untenable situation where people in Northern Ireland are treated differently to the rest of the United Kingdom, protect the supremacy of our courts and our territorial integrity. “This is a reasonable, practical solution to the problems facing Northern Ireland. It will safeguard the EU Single Market and ensure there is no hard border on the island of Ireland. We are ready to deliver this through talks with the EU. But we can only make progress through negotiations if the EU are willing to change the protocol itself – at the moment they aren’t. In the meantime the serious situation in Northern Ireland means we cannot afford to allow the situation to drift. “As the government of the whole United Kingdom, it is our duty to take the necessary steps to preserve peace and stability.” Summary Here’s a roundup of the news today, as the government has launched its plans to rip up the Northern Ireland protocol risking confrontation with the EU. Elsewhere the flight from the UK to Rwanda carrying refugees scheduled for tomorrow could still go ahead. Foreign secretary Liz Truss risked a trade war with the EU and accusations of lawbreaking as she published legislation that would allow exports from Britain to Northern Ireland to follow either UK or EU standards and checks. Goods for Northern Ireland will be able to use a green lane, which will mean they will get fewer customs checks. Those destined for EU countries will have to follow a red lane. The European Court of Justice will also no longer have a say in trade disputes, and it will instead fall to an independent arbitration process. Truss said the measures were “a reasonable, practical solution to the problems facing Northern Ireland”. The full bill can be found here. European Commission vice president Maros Šefčovič has said that the EU views the latest plans from the UK with “significant concern”. The EU is looking to take action against the UK for its new legislation. The move has long been considered legally risky, and the government is basing its move on the “doctrine of necessity” according to its published legal advice, saying it has no choice but to act. However politicians and legal commentators have said this is not the case. Politicians across the Irish Channel are predictably split. Neale Richmond, a spokesperson for the Fine Gael party in the Republic of Ireland said it was the “lowest day” since Brexit. Deputy leader of the Alliance party in Northern Ireland, Stephen Farry said it will do “real harm” to Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein, the largest party in the dissolved Stormont assembly and in the Republic’s Dáil Éireann, has not made any comment since it was published this evening. However beforehand its leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill said it was “in clear breach of international law” (see 17:44). Away from the government’s new bill Two last ditch legal challenges that attempted to halt the inaugural flight carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda have been rejected by judges. The multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks has lost his libel action against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr, which was criticised as an attack on free speech. Keir Starmer is being investigated by parliament’s standards commissioner over alleged breaches of the rules on declaring financial interests worth more than £18,000. That’s all today, thank you for following our coverage. The US secretary of state Anthony Blinken has tweeted after speaking to UK foreign secretary Liz Truss and said there was a “need to continue negotiations with the EU to find solutions”. The crisis over Northern Ireland and Brexit for Boris Johnson should be providing de ja vu for the Conservative party according to deputy political editor of the Spectator Katy Balls, in a piece for the Guardian this evening. It’s reminiscent of the problems Theresa May faced, she says, which ultimately brought May down. A weakened prime minister facing a party divided on Brexit and a European Union that is inclined to wait and negotiate with their eventual successor. No, not Theresa May. This time, it’s Boris Johnson. After the government revealed on Monday evening the bill it plans to use to unilaterally rewrite parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, it’s the current Tory leader who is being squeezed two ways. Problems with the Northern Ireland protocol are nothing new. Almost as soon as Johnson agreed to the new trading arrangement between the UK and EU, issues started to arise. The prime minister’s insistence that there would be no checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland or vice versa quickly proved to be wide of the mark. As time has gone on, the problems with the trade barriers have become more apparent – with some mainland businesses simply giving up on sending goods to Northern Ireland because of the onerous bureaucracy. More reaction from opposition parties in the UK. In comments carried by Labour party news website LabourList, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said it was a “desperate attempt [by Boris Johnson] to distract from the drama of his leadership crisis”. It risks creating new trade barriers in a cost-of-living crisis and will only bring more uncertainty for the people of Northern Ireland who are trying to make the protocol work. Britain should be a country that keeps its word. By tearing up the protocol it negotiated just a couple of years ago, the government will damage Britain’s reputation and make finding a lasting solution more difficult. His Liberal Democrat counterpart, the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran, said the decision was “astounding”. “If the Conservatives enact these proposals, they risk starting a trade war with our closest neighbours which will push prices up even further. In the midst of this cost of living emergency, this is the last thing families up and down the country need.” In Scotland, Scottish National party MP and its Northern Ireland spokesperson Richard Thomson said: “The UK government has form when it comes to breaching international law. However, this latest threat to unilaterally scrap aspects of the Northern Ireland protocol – a protocol made necessary because of Brexit and which the UK government not only requested but signed up to freely - is utterly reckless and dangerous. “Rather than reneging on its commitments the UK government should instead be working constructively to address the particular challenges facing Northern Ireland while ensuring that the Good Friday Agreement is protected.” An official from the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that anything other than a negotiated agreement between the UK and EU is “simply sub-optimal”. Stuart Anderson, the chamber’s head of public affairs said that some measures would be helpful, but firms bore the brunt of risk from it. He said: “While there are attractive elements in today’s proposals for consumer facing businesses in particular, a careful balance must be struck to protect gains made to date by our exporters and agri-food sub-sectors. The apparent shifting of risk onto NI businesses is a cause for particular concern. “As our businesses fight the challenge of soaring inflation, it is incumbent on the EU and the UK to recommence discussions without any further delay. We stand ready to play our part in supporting lasting solutions that work for NI businesses and households. “The process of unilateral reform commenced today is not at our request but we remain firmly of the view that an agreed way forward can be found. Anything other than a negotiated outcome is simply sub-optimal.” Back to Northern Ireland, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Jeffrey Donaldson has said the party will reserve judgement until the bill progresses. He repeated that the Irish government was “tone deaf” to unionist concerns. He told the administration in Dublin: “The DUP will judge what constitutes decisive action as we see this bill progressing. “Start listening to what unionists are saying, understand the nature of our concerns, take your head out of the sand and recognise that there is a problem here that needs to be resolved, stop running away from the problem - let’s get it sorted.” He said he did not believe the UK Government was acting illegally, PA Media reports. “I believe that the British government is acting within the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement.” One of the side-effects from the potential dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol is the wider-impact on the UK economy, which is already forecast to be one of the worst performing in the G20. An interesting point from Richard Burge who heads up the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). He has had this to say: “We are hugely concerned that the introduction of the Government’s Northern Ireland Bill risks significant harm to businesses in London and right across the whole of the UK. “Getting Brexit done was at least meant to deliver certainty to businesses after years of waiting for clarity on the future of the UK’s trade relations with the European Union. The introduction of this bill means we are now teetering on the brink of a trade war with the EU and that will mean further economic pain and falls in investment. “The UK is already set to be the worst performing economy in the G20 over the next year, why would government risk further economic harm at a moment of inflationary pressure and major land war in Europe? While the protection of the UK internal market is important, it is equally as important to have macroeconomic stability, especially during this cost of living and cost of doing business crises. We urge the government to carefully consider the impact that playing politics with the protocol could have on the British economy.” The government’s “doctrine of necessity”, which it has based its legal justification on for breaking international law has been met with scepticism by lawyers and government ministers. Mark Eliott, a professor of public law at the University of Cambridge, has said that the International Law Commission says “necessity” means “grave and imminent peril”. He does not think this has been met. David Allen Green, who is a law and policy commentator, has said the legal justification is “perhaps the weakest justification placed into the public domain since the trip to Barnard Castle to test one’s eyesight”, referring to Dominic Cummings’ lockdown trip to Durham in 2020. Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney general has also said it is “complete and utter nonsense”.