MP should quit over this bill to keep integrity

✒ YOUR readers may like to ponder on the paradoxical position in which the Cheltenham MP, Alex Chalk, now finds himself.

Before politics, Alex practised as a barrister prosecuting and defending in cases that included those concerning terrorism and international fraud.

He also provided counsel for an Iranian prisoner of conscience.

No doubt, he would often have argued the necessity of upholding international law, condemning those who flouted it.

He is now a Parliamentary Undersecretary of State in the Department of Justice, serving a government that openly admits that its Internal Market Bill would break international law by ignoring significant provisions of the EU Withdrawal Agreement signed only a few months ago.

Whatever the politics of this – Alex was elected on the promise to support the WA and voted for it – he is bound by the ministerial code that applies to both domestic and international law.

This states that there is an “overarching duty on ministers to comply with the law”.

Some apologists for the new bill have argued that national sovereignty can override international obligations.

But the treaty that governs the interpretation of all treaties, the Vienna Convention, says that “a party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty”.

Even if I do not agree with him on some policy issues, I recognise that Alex Chalk is a hard-working MP who has served his constituency with diligence.

But the legislation now being promoted with the support of his Justice Department breaks the law.

As a minister who is bound by the code, he must have no part in it.

If he wants to maintain his reputation for integrity, it seems to me that he should resign from his post.