Brexit: Scrapping Northern Ireland protocol is legal, says attorney general

The Government’s Chief Law Officer has been given legal advice that it would be legal to suspend parts of the post-Brexit treaty for Northern Ireland.

Attorney General Suella Braverman’s earlier view — who claims the opposite — has changed because the deal is fueling social unrest, her office says.

The advice means there could be new legislation scrapping controls on goods being transported from the UK to Northern Ireland.

The UK and EU will later hold talks to address the escalating dispute.

The new legal advice could pave the way for Britain to follow through on its repeated threats to introduce legislation that would scrap controversial parts of the trade protocol.

Designed to avoid the need for a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, the agreement came into force in 2021 and introduced goods controls between Britain and Northern Ireland – angering unionists who claimed it had established a border in the Irish Sea instead.

The Times, which first reported on the change in legal advice, said the Attorney General argued signs of violence – such as a hoax bombing of Irish Foreign Secretary Simon Coveney in March – justified Britain suspending the deal in order to secure peace true.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that “the most important agreement is the 25-year-old Good Friday Agreement of Belfast,” which set up a cross-community power-sharing government to end decades of violence.

He said the Northern Ireland protocol had failed to provide cross-community support and “we need to get it sorted”.

But Mr Johnson also said it shouldn’t take “drama” to make changes to the deal.

The process to amend the trade arrangements is likely to take more than a year, with the House of Lords expected to seek to block and delay government legislation.

However, a stalemate resulting from the Northern Ireland Assembly election has heightened the urgency.

The Democratic Unionist Party – which came second in the poll behind Sinn Féin and supports the continuation of the union between Britain and Northern Ireland – is refusing to appoint ministers to help form a new executive until their troubles with the trade protocol have tackled.

The election resulted in a majority for MPs supporting the protocol, with Republican Sinn Féin the strongest party for the first time.

But under the rules of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Sinn Féin cannot appoint a first minister without a unionized deputy minister.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who has said she will not hesitate to “take action to stabilize the situation in Northern Ireland”, will hold talks with the Vice-President of the European Commission on Thursday morning.

She should tell Maros Sefcovic in a phone call that the dispute should not drag on.

The EU proposed changes to the protocol in October focused on reducing inspections of food products in particular, but Ms Truss has rejected that plan.

Due to grace periods, the protocol is not yet fully implemented, which is why the UK argues that the proposed changes would actually increase scrutiny and controls, resulting in “everyday items disappearing from the shelves”.

Mr Sefcovic has previously urged the UK to “back off the rhetoric” and be “honest” about what it pledged to do when it signed the protocol.