Brexit bill hugely damaging to UK’s reputation: ex-envoy
Britain’s former ambassador to Washington has described the internal market bill as “hugely damaging to our international reputation”, warning that it could deter other countries from entering into agreements with the UK in the future.
Kim Darroch told the Guardian that if it becomes law, in violation of the withdrawal agreement signed with the EU last year, it would endanger the country’s prospects of achieving trade deals with the EU and the US, and have an enduring impact on its global standing.
“It is the most astonishing thing I can recall through my entire public service career: a minister said we are knowingly breaking international law,” said Darroch in an interview.
Over the course of a 43-year career at the foreign office, he served as envoy to the EU in Brussels and national security adviser, before becoming ambassador to the US.
“It’s potentially hugely damaging to our international reputation. It puts at risk future international agreements, if people think the Brits are just going to say: we didn’t like this on reflection, and we would like to rewrite this part unilaterally,” the retired diplomat, now Lord Darroch of Kew, said.
The bill survived its latest parliamentary hurdle on Monday night, passing its second reading in the House of Commons by a margin of 77 votes.
Governing the flow of goods and services between the UK’s four constituent nations, the bill stipulates it takes precedence where it contradicts elements of the withdrawal agreement, and the government has admitted that would break international law.
Darroch said the impact could be first felt in negotiations with the EU to establish new trade relations after Brexit.
“I’ve talked to a few people in Brussels, and they are determined not to just walk away from the table because of this. It’s equally inconceivable you would get the UK-EU deal through if this passes into law,” he said.
The effect of the bill on Northern
Ireland would have other ramifications, particularly if it led to customs checks on the border with the Republic of Ireland, something the withdrawal agreement was designed to prevent.
The return of a hard border would jeopardise the 1998 Good Friday agreement, to which the US is guarantor.
“The UK-US deal is at risk because, even if Donald Trump is re-elected, it’s quite hard to see the Republicans taking back the House (of Representatives),” Darroch said. “And as long as the House is in Democratic hands, the leadership have made it clear that a UK-US free trade deal wouldn’t be possible if we put at risk the Good Friday agreement.”
Darroch was forced to resign as ambassador to Washington in July last year after his reports back to London on the turmoil and dysfunction in the Trump administration were leaked.