Brussels is playing with fire in Northern Ireland

No deal remains better than a bad deal. Michel Barnier’s attempt to trap Britain must be resisted

After a conflict that took thousands of lives, with a fragile peace process and a devolved government in Stormont that remains suspended, the European Commission is trying to use Northern Ireland to bind the United Kingdom into a subservient relationship with the EU.

Its proposal yesterday – that Northern Ireland “shall be considered part of the customs territory of the European Union”, creating a border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain within the United Kingdom – was an aggressive step. It is, however, consistent with the strategy Brussels has pursued since Theresa May invoked Article 50 last year.

The Europeans deliberately created a Catch-22 situation by asserting that the status of the Irish border must be resolved before the UK’S future relationship with the EU can be discussed, even though by definition the border question cannot be addressed until the future relationship is agreed.

The British response has been patient, but firm. The Government argues that the solution lies in a comprehensive free trade agreement, a sensible customs partnership, more devolution to Stormont, close cooperation with Ireland, efficient pre-registration schemes for customs checks, and investment in modern technology. This is the kind of “flexible and imaginative solution” the EU said was necessary in its earliest negotiating guidelines.

Yet Brussels has laughed off Britain’s proposals because they want to deny the plausibility of any solution that does not bind the UK to the EU’S rules and regulations. They want us locked into a customs union and the single market, so they can maintain trade with us while exerting control over our economy.

They must not get what they want. No British Government could accept the establishment of internal borders within our country. But nor can the Government respond to this aggression by caving in and accepting British membership of the single market and a customs union.

Yesterday’s proposal is cynical but also dangerous. It says the EU wants to “protect the Good Friday Agreement in all its dimensions”. But the agreement was explicit that Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom: the proposal to create a border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain clearly contravenes the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

Nor does it accord with what the EU agreed with Theresa May in December. Michel Barnier and the Irish Government say that nobody who heeded the December agreement can be surprised by yesterday’s proposal. But that agreement acknowledged the UK’S “commitment to preserving the integrity of its internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it, as the United Kingdom leaves the internal market and customs union”.

The Government must therefore hold the line, as Theresa May did yesterday in Parliament. In her speech tomorrow she must continue to resist Barnier’s proposals and insist that the solution lies in the agreement about our future relationship with the EU.

For his part, Barnier must stop playing with fire. Not only does his proposal make it more likely that Britain will leave the EU with no agreement in place, its recklessness risks the peace process. But Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, must also remember his responsibilities. The Good Friday Agreement obliges him to respect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK, but his behaviour suggests he has forgotten that.

He clearly believes it is in Ireland’s interests that the UK should stay in the single market and a customs union with the EU. But he cannot force us to take either course. Talking tough might give him a short-term political boost, but if the UK leaves the EU with no deal, the Republic will suffer at least as much as Britain from a disorderly Brexit. Instead of grandstanding, the sensible thing for Ireland would be for Varadkar to support the kind of close relationship the UK seeks with the EU. But having talked tough for months, he will find it difficult now to change course.

There is still a way out of the mess. Simon Coveney, the Irish Foreign Minister, issued a conciliatory statement yesterday, and the text of the proposal made clear that “part or all of this protocol may cease to apply should a future agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom be agreed”.

The suggestion from Brussels and Dublin is that the proposal to keep Northern Ireland, but not Great Britain, in the customs union is merely a backstop solution, if all else fails. But the Government must reject even that. Because whatever Barnier tried to achieve yesterday, the true backstop is not what he proposes. The backstop must be what the Prime Minister has always said: that, for Britain, no deal is better than a bad deal.

What the Europeans put on the table yesterday is a bad deal, and so would be an agreement that achieves the EU’S objective of trapping the UK inside the single market and within a customs union. That would not be acceptable: it must be resisted.