The Internal Market Bill is a belated but important stand by the UK government

The hope is that it will. The fear is it will not.

The planned legislation has been slated after a remarkably unwise intervention in the Commons by Brandon Lewis, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, who said that it would break international law. Some legal experts have since insisted that it will not do so, but will ensure that one set of UK obligations do not clash with another.

This fiasco has its origins in Boris Johnson rushing into a deal with Leo Varadkar last year, in defiance of all the commitments against an Irish Sea border that he had given to the DUP, the party that was then propping up the government.

Critics of the legislation would say that Mr Johnson regretting the major border that he created in the Irish Sea does not constitute grounds to set aside an agreement, and that is true.

But while the October 2019 deal was rushed, and the prime minister’s regret seems to be real, regret is not the only factor motivating the government. It also has to operate within existing legal constraints.

It is important that there is complete clarity with regard to Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom internal market, which is guaranteed by the 1801 Act of Union.

With Simon Coveney saying that the bill will make a trade deal with the EU impossible, and with Joe Biden having hinted the same about a US trade deal during the recent election, the pressure on the government to buckle will be immense.

Tory governments almost invariably buckle when they come under such pressure from nationalist Ireland. This government seems set to let EU officers enforce an EU border within the United Kingdom, after taking a stand on the much less important matter of an EU office in Belfast.

After the huge concessions the UK has made over Northern Ireland, the passing of the Internal Market Bill will represent a relatively minor and belated stand against the EU. But it will be an important one.

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