Things are heating up in the battle over Northern Ireland. After his trip to Belfast yesterday, the Prime Minister is releasing a ‘take back control’ Bill that will unilaterally change the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol. It’s part bluff, part serious – and could very well reopen Brexit wars.
Liz Truss’s statement this afternoon followed the gameplan revealed in detail by James Forsyth in a recent cover piece. The Queen’s Speech carries an anodyne-sounding reference to protecting the Good Friday Agreement and ‘supporting’ devolution but (to quote James) ‘these words will be a coded threat to the European Union that the UK is prepared to unilaterally tear up parts of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland’. We are now at that stage.
The basis for the action was laid out last year (details here), saying that ‘consumers have seen real impacts: at least 200 companies in Great Britain have stopped servicing the Northern Ireland market’ with trade down 12 per cent – thereby inflaming public opinion, with mass protests and every elected Unionist opposed to the Protocol.
It’s part bluff, part serious – and could very well reopen Brexit wars.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in