We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron joined other ex-leaders of the country to express concern at Boris Johnson’s plan to break international law by overriding parts of the Brexit divorce treaty with the European Union. “Passing an Act of Parliament and then going on to break an international treaty obligation is the very, very last thing you should contemplate. It should be an absolute final resort,” Mr Cameron, from Johnson’s Conservative Party, told reporters on Monday.

“So I do have misgivings about what is being proposed.”

Former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major said on Sunday that Britain must drop its “shocking” plan.

Mr Johnson’s former attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, has also warned it would be “unconscionable” to override the Brexit divorce deal, as the Tory rebellion against the controversial legislation grew.

The Tory MP said there is “no doubt” the “unpalatable” implications of the Withdrawal Agreement were known when the Prime Minister signed it, a time when Mr Cox was the chief law officer.

The Brexiteer warned he would not back the UK Internal Market Bill unless ministers dispel the impression they plan to “permanently and unilaterally” rewrite an international agreement.

The QC, who was attorney general during the unlawful suspension of Parliament, said tariffs and customs procedures on certain goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain were part of the deal.

“There can be no doubt that these were the known, unpalatable but inescapable, implications of the agreement,” he wrote in The Times.

He said if the powers in the Bill were used to “nullify those perfectly plain and foreseeable consequences” then it would amount to the “unilateral abrogation of the treaty obligations” signed in October.

“It is unconscionable that this country, justly famous for its regard for the rule of law around the world, should act in such a way,” he said.

Can’t see this Brexit poll? Click here to open in your browser 

Mr Cox urged ministers to use the “clear and lawful” options under the agreement to remedy their concerns that food imports may be blocked from Britain to Northern Ireland.

Or, “in extremis”, he said, they could take “temporary and proportionate measures” during an independent arbitration process.

“What ministers should not do, however provoked or frustrated they may feel about an impasse in negotiations, is to take or use powers permanently and unilaterally to rewrite portions of an international agreement into which this country freely entered just a few months ago,” he said.

His intervention came ahead of MPs debating the legislation on Monday, when the Bill returns to the Commons amid growing criticism that breaching international law would jeopardise the UK’s standing in the world.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland had earlier said the controversial powers amounted to a “break the glass in emergency provision if we need it” and said he did not believe they would be used.

DON’T MISS:
‘Irrelevant!’ Blair and Major ordered to stay out of it [REACTION]
Andrew Neil confronts Michel Barnier over his furious Brexit outburst [VIDEO]
Brexiteer orders Boris Johnson to simply ‘walk away’ from talks [INSIGHT]

He said, during questioning on The Andrew Marr Show, that he would resign “if I see the rule of law being broken in a way I find unacceptable”, and insisted ministers were committed to getting a trade deal with the EU.

But the chances of the desired free trade deal being struck were hanging in the balance, with Downing Street’s chief negotiator Lord Frost heading to Brussels for informal talks this week.

Mr Johnson warned that Brussels could “carve up our country” without his new Bill, as he stepped up his rhetoric as senior Tories prepared to rebel against the legislation.

Outrage at the Bill has come from across the political spectrum, including from Conservative former prime ministers Theresa May, Sir John Major and Lord Howard.

Sir John and fellow former Prime Minister Tony Blair united to urge MPs to reject the “shaming” legislation, saying it imperils the Irish peace process, trade negotiations and the UK’s integrity.

“It raises questions that go far beyond the impact on Ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal – crucial though they are. It questions the very integrity of our nation,” they wrote in the Sunday Times.

Source: Read Full Article