“It’s the EU that still seems to be in denial… the EU thinks somehow they should hang on to the right for their courts to carry on dictating laws in our own country”
A pro-Brexit MP has said that the United Kingdom’s plans to leave the European Union is comparable to a “country becoming independent from an empire”.
Speaking on BBC Newsnight on Wednesday night in the wake of the emergence of the internal market bill, which overrides crucial parts of the agreement to withdraw from the EU last year, Bernard Jenkin accused the EU of not acting in good faith, and said that the UK is being punished as a result.
He said: “The deal leaving the EU is a one-off exceptional treaty – it’s like an independent country leaving an empire.
“We’re not likely to ever have to sign an agreement like this again. We will be an independent sovereign state.
“It’s the EU that still seems to be in denial… the EU thinks somehow they should hang on to the right for their courts to carry on dictating laws in our own country.”
"The deal leaving the EU is a one off exceptional treaty – it's like a independent country leaving an empire."
– Sir Bernard Jenkin on why the government should change the N.I Protocol@bernardjenkin | #Newsnight pic.twitter.com/aysBqVWdhx
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 9, 2020
The bill, heavily criticised by EU leaders and representatives of the Irish government in recent days, will have a significant impact on Northern Ireland.
It threatens to undermine the avoidance of a hard border that was such a key part of the initial withdrawal agreement published last October and ratified by the UK government and the Council of the European Union in January of this year.
In parliament earlier this week, the government admitted that the legislation would be in violation of international obligations “in a “specific and limited way”.
