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.
