Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has said a new bill to amend the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU will “break international law”. He conceded it would go against the treaty in a “specific and limited way”.
The legislation being brought forward would violate parts of the withdrawal agreement, negotiated last year with the EU and signed this year.
Theresa May warned the change could damage “trust” in the UK over future trade deals with other states. Surely “would” is the word that should be used.
Keir Starmer condemned the bill and accused No 10 of “reopening old arguments that had been settled.”.
Jonathan Jones, permanent secretary to the Government Legal Department, has announced he is resigning.
If you are unhappy about the potential effects of this bill will you please tell your MP
Laura Trott – SevenoaksTom Tugendhat – Tonbridge & Malling
Greg Clarke – Tunbridge Wells
Other MPs are available – and you can find yours HERE
Click on your MPs name* and there is a template letter but you can of course change it as you like.
and remember that you must include your name and address so that your MP can see that you are a constituent.
* it seems that some browsers do not support these links. If the link does not take you to a draft email, you should be able to find one HERE
PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON
Other MPs are available – and you can find yours HERE
Click on your MPs name* and there is a template letter but you can of course change it as you like.
and remember that you must include your name and address so that your MP can see that you are a constituent.
*An alternative message:
Dear …
As a constituent of yours, I trust that you will be voting against the Internal Market Bill until it is amended so that it is in full accord with the (EU) Withdrawal Agreement.
Contrary to the dubious opinion of the current Attorney-General in her statement today, I hope you are aware the at the Vienna Convention states that, “A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty” (VCLT Art. 27 – Internal Law and Observance of Treaties).
As the Rt Hon Lord Howard pointed out in the House of Lords today, what is at stake here is “the reputation of our country for probity and respect for the rule of law.”
The rule of law is a fundamental building block of our parliamentary democracy and no one has been above the law since Magna Carta came into force in 1215. If we cease to respect that, Britain ceases to be the great country it is.
I trust, therefore, if you vote in favour of this Bill (so long as it is not in accord with the Withdrawal Agreement), that you will call a by-election in …. (insert constituency name), for the purposes of securing a mandate from your constituents to authorise you to commit a violation of international law.
Sincerely yours,
(Name + address)