MPs voted to reject changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill after it was debated in the House of Commons on Wednesday as part of its committee stage.
The Bill would hand UK ministers the power to remove customs checks on goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland that are not destined to continue into the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Protocol - the mechanism which imposes such checks to maintain a soft border on the island of Ireland - is fiercely opposed by unionists, who support the government’s move to bring through legislation and ensure that Northern Ireland’s place in the UK is not undermined.
While the Democratic Unionist Party [DUP] in Northern Ireland is backing the legislation, other local parties are opposed to it and argue that it is necessary to ease the impact of Brexit in the region.
Two of those opposing parties, the SDLP and Alliance, were unsuccessful in passing proposed amendments to the Bill. The UK Labour party also failed to drum up enough support to make changes.
Most Conservative candidates to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister have said that they will continue to press for it to get through Parliament. Johnson has previously suggested that the Bill could be passed by the end of the year, but it is likely to face stiff resistance in the House of Lords.
The Conservative government is pressing ahead with the Bill in an attempt to restore the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said that his party will not serve in government with nationalists, Sinn Fein, until the issues around the Protocol have been addressed.
Sir Jeffrey has said that it will be a personal priority for him to ensure that Boris Johnson’s successor does not backtrack from getting the Bill through Parliament.
Shailesh Vara, the newly appointed Northern Ireland secretary said ahead of Wednesday’s debate that the government was committed to passing the Bill and enshrining it into law if an agreement on the Protocol cannot be reached with the EU.
The Bill has been met with anger from Brussels, with the bloc launching legal action against the UK over the draft legislation following its introduction to Parliament.
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Maros Šefčovič, has suggested that a trade war could ensue between the UK and EU if the Bill continues its course.
Photo by Marcin Nowak on Unsplash
