Tory rebels force Boris Johnson's Brexit hand! (4k)

Tory rebels have forced Boris Johnson to water down his Brexit plans.

I asked the Brexit question yesterday - 'is Boris about to cave under pressure from Tory rebels?'

And the answer seems to be yes he has.

After putting forward a strong set of clauses in The UK Internal Market Bill that would, if enacted, ensure the constitutional future of Northern Ireland within the UK, he has now agreed to water them down.

The Tory rebels faced him down, and he buckled.

His initial plan was for the Government to have laws on hand that they would be able to quickly deploy to see off any threat from Brussels aggressively 'interpreting' the Withdrawal Agreement, so as to blockade Northern Ireland off from the rest of the UK.

But, after what is being called a 'constructive' meeting with the rebels, Boris has had a change of heart. He has now agreed that, before any such move can be made, he must win a further vote in the House of Commons.

So we now hear that a government amendment is on the way to give the Bill a 'more explicit democratic mandate' that adds 'legal certainty'.

Now, that might go some way to placating his back-benchers. But Brussels has said that anything other than total compliance with the Withdrawal Agreement is a non-starter.

Brussels wants those Withdrawal Agreement breaking clauses completely removed from the Bill.

They are unhappy to have them there even as some sort of emergency break the glass type clause.

EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said:

"We are concerned about the behaviour of the British Government.

"If the UK does not comply with the exit agreement, there will no longer be a basis for a free-trade agreement between the EU and the UK.

"The UK Government must correct this before we continue to negotiate our political and economic relations."

But despite this, the EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has been told to stay at the table to continue the talks.

And the Express quotes a senior EU diplomatic source as saying:

"Everyone was in total agreement that we should not fall into the trap of suspending negotiations, this is something we won't do.

"We have a legal track for this under the Withdrawal Agreement – let's take our time with it.

"We would be doing a favour to the Brexiteers by suspending the talks. So that was never actually an option."

Now, in a joint statement with the architect of the Tory amendment, Sir Bob Neill, a government spokesperson said:

"We welcome the way the Parliamentary party has come together on these issues. There is near-unanimous agreement that the Government must be able to use these powers as a final resort, that there must be legal certainty, and that no further amendments are required on these powers."

But, now that the rebels have Boris on the run, it will be much harder for him to get parliament to agree to the use of those powers even in extremis.

Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, said:

"This does not fix the problem of breaking the law, damaging our reputation around the world and damaging our future prosperity.

"We need a trade deal with Europe and that is what we were promised. Breaking our own word and the treaty the prime minister signed puts that at risk."

Article 6(2) of the Lisbon Treaty treaty requires all EU members states and the European Union itself, as a body, to sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights, the ECHR.

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Видео Tory rebels force Boris Johnson's Brexit hand! (4k) канала Jeff Taylor