Withdrawal (dis)agreement

• The United Kingdom Internal Market Bill: a breach of international law?

Sir John Major, Theresa May, Michael Howard, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, the former Conservative Attorney-General, Sir Geoffrey Cox, and Sajid Javid were just some of the biggest names who weighed in against the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill.

The issue they all highlighted was that in relation to goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, cl 42 would permit UK Ministers to disapply exit procedures required by the Northern Ireland Protocol which is part of the Withdrawal Agreement—and that this would be a breach of international law. The same applies to cl 43.

Level playing field

Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol aims to secure that state aid affecting trade between Northern Ireland and the EU is subject to the principle of ‘the level playing field’. Clause 43 gives the secretary of state the power to disapply that part of the Protocol.

Clause