Powell Bill threat to Irish peace
Boris Johnson threatens to destroy peace in Ireland, according to the man who wrote the historic Good Friday Agreement.
Jonathan Powell has warned that the PM’s decision to rip up Britain’s international treaty obligations risks “tipping us back into violence”.
The former chief of staff to Tony Blair said the move is a “threat to everything this country stands for”.
He called on Tory MPs to rebel in sufficient numbers to block the contentious Internal Market Bill in the Commons.
And he accused the PM of being a British version of US president Donald Trump, using Brexit to distract from the “mess” of his handling of Covid.
The Bill – which ministers admit breaks international law – threatens to wreck any final Brexit deal by tearing up the Northern Ireland protocol, negotiated, agreed and signed by Johnson only last October.
Downing Street said the agreement was “rushed” and the new legislation provides essential qualifications to the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
But it has met with a barrage of shocked derision from critics, including former PMs Theresa May and John Major.
Powell said: “By breaking the agreement with the EU he makes it more likely the EU will have to impose a hard border between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland.
“If that hard border goes up again it will threaten the very basis of the Good Friday Agreement and risk tipping us back into violence.”