The Government’s Bill to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol will be “blocked or savagely amended” in the House of Lords, a former Secretary of State has said.
Lord Peter Hain described it as “dangerous legislation” which wouldn’t even resolve the issues concerning the DUP but would only “prolong the agony”.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Lord Hain said: “This Bill could well be blocked in the Lords, which would be unusual, but given that it wasn’t in the Conservative election manifesto, there is no constitutional precedent to prevent blocking it.
“If it isn’t blocked, then it will be savagely amended. It is a dangerous Bill for three reasons: it trashes Britain’s reputation for sticking by its word, it sabotages the Good Friday Agreement, and it just won’t work anyway.
“If the Government continues going down this road, it just creates more pain. The Bill won’t ultimately satisfy the DUP because it doesn’t really — to use their phrase — ‘fix the protocol’. It just prolongs the agony.”
Lord Hain said that issues surrounding the protocol could be resolved through the proper channels: “The most galling thing is that this is all fixable with proper, serious ‘roll up your sleeves’ hard work.
“There is a deal to be done but Brussels and Dublin will not now make extra concessions that I think they’d have been willing to do because they’ll think that Boris Johnson will only pocket them, tear up the agreement, and then we’ll be back where we started.”
Lord Hain expressed his frustration at the Government’s plan of action: “I am so angry because Boris Johnson is not doing this to protect Northern Ireland. He doesn’t care a fig about the unionist community or the future of the island of Ireland. He is simply seeking to appease a faction in his own party. It is absolutely scandalous that he is posturing and putting factional positions ahead of peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland.
“I am not speaking on a yah-boo Labour-Tory party basis, I am speaking objectively.
“ A lot of people, including former Labour and Tory prime ministers, put an enormous amount of time and effort into getting (Northern Ireland) to where we are and, if we’re not careful, there is a danger now that it could all go up in flames.”
Northern Ireland Affairs Committee chair, Tory MP Simon Hoare, said he would not vote for the Bill in the House of Commons.
Mr Hoare said he was disappointed the Government was acting unilaterally. He was upset that the reputation of both his “country and party as an upholder of the rule of law was being jeopardised in such a cavalier way”.
He told RTE that the Bill represented the “hanging, drawing and quartering” of the protocol, taking it “and putting it through the mincer”.
He said it was a “shabby show” deeply damaging to the “UK’s reputation at home and abroad”, and he was particularly pained by the “souring of Anglo-Irish relations”.
Meanwhile, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said there is no timetable for his party to return to power-sharing at Stormont despite the Bill, but he believes it has the potential to provide a solution to the protocol issue.
Speaking in London, Sir Jeffrey said: “We haven’t completed our initial assessment of the legislation. We want to do that and then we’ll talk to the Government about where we go from here. There’s a long way to go with this legislation. It will take months to pass through the Commons and the Lords unless the Government decides to escalate the timetable for the Bill, and we haven’t heard that.
“So we will consider what happens in the legislative process, but at this stage we haven’t come to a view as to when the institutions might be restored.
“We want that to happen but we need to be sure that this Bill is moving forward and will be enacted.
“A solution can only work once the legislation is in place. We believe it has the potential to provide a solution on the difficulties created by the protocol.”
However, Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O’Neill said the legislation would create economic uncertainty.
During a visit to a Co Tyrone factory, she said: “The reality is that the actions of Boris Johnson to unilaterally disapply parts of the protocol, will have a negative impact on businesses like this.
“It creates more uncertainty so that is not in the best interests of people here, it is certainly not in the best interests of the business community.
“There are ways to smooth the protocol but that needs to be done in an agreed fashion between the EU and the British Government.
“The Boris Johnson approach of running roughshod over the protocol, undermining the protocol, undermining the Good Friday Agreement, undermining political stability, is just not acceptable.”
The Taoiseach described the Bill as “anti-business and anti-industry”.
Micheal Martin said: “The fundamental issue is one of trust because the EU did enter an international agreement with the UK Government, which is now, essentially, being reneged upon. A lot of EU leaders are going to say, ‘How are we going to trust you again if we do a further deal? How do we know you will adhere to that deal?’”
