10 Downing Street has published a ‘rebuttal’ to my article in this week’s Spectator looking at the legal implications of the Withdrawal Agreement. Regrettably, its responses to my critique go beyond making a best case for the treaty. Instead, No. 10 seeks to take advantage of the legal complexities to misrepresent the legal effects of the agreement on the first critical point (whether there could be any effective recourse to arbitration) as well as others. Much is at stake, so I have replied to each of its ‘rebuttals’ in bold, below.
1. “Once the Protocol is in force, the UK cannot leave it except by ‘joint’ decision of the UK and the EU. This gives the EU a right of veto over the UK’s exit. In agreeing to this clause, the government has caved in over seeking a right to leave.”
Downing Street: The Protocol is explicit in the legal text that it is intended to be a temporary arrangement.
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