Johnson Rejects Claims NI Protocol Changes Would Break 'International Law'

British opposition parties, Irish republicans and Tory Europhiles have all condemned the government's plan to invoke remedial mechanisms in the Northern Ireland Protocol, claiming it would breach international law.

Britain's prime minister has insisted changes to the European Union withdrawal agreement will go through despite rumours of a backbench rebellion.

Speaking to LBC radio's Nick Ferrari on Monday morning during a visit to Cornwall, Boris Johnson denied the planned amendments to the Northern Ireland Protocol were "dead in the water" after 148 Conservative MPs voted against him in last week's attempt to force an internal party leadership contest.

"It's a seaplane, this thing", Johnson replied, labouring the metaphor. "It is going to take off from the water because it's the right thing, it's the right way forward".

The government announced last month that it would invoke Article 16 of the protocol, an annexe to the post-Brexit trade agreement with the European Union (EU) that keeps Northern Ireland in the Common Market ostensibly to preserve the 1998 Belfast peace accord.

That mechanism allows either side to make changes to the deal if it interferes with trade or threatens social cohesion — as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss argued the imposition of a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK had done, prompting violent protests among the Unionist community.

The PM rejected allegations by opposition parties, Irish republicans, and the anti-Brexit wing of his own party that invoking Article 16 would be a breach of "international law", along with fears expressed by business group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that the changes would provoke a trade war with Brussels.

The Financial Times reported that a note was circulating among Tory backbenchers inciting a rebellion in the vote on legislation, reading: "Breaking international law to rip up the Prime Minister's own treaty is damaging to everything the UK and Conservatives stand for".

"I think our higher and prior legal commitment as a country is to the Belfast Good Friday agreement and to the balance and stability of that agreement", Johnson said. "We can [maintain] that, that's all we're trying to do".

"What we have to respect — this is the crucial thing — is the balance and the symmetry of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement", he added. "One community at the moment feels very, very estranged from the way things are operating, and very alienated".

Johnson insisted only simple "bureaucratic" changes were needed, calling the proposed amendments "a relatively trivial set of adjustments in the grand scheme of things".

The PM may be counting on support for the changes from the hard-line Eurosceptics in his party who backed the no-confidence vote. The leaders of the European Research Group of 70 backbenchers voted to remove Johnson, but also oppose the EU's imposition of a customs border down the Irish Sea.

Rwanda Row

Ferrari also grilled Johnson on the government's policy of settling illegally-trafficked migrants claiming asylum in the African nation of Rwanda. Prince Charles reportedly broke with royal political neutrality over the weekend, calling the scheme "appalling".

"I think that most people can see that the criminal gangs ... they need to be stopped. That model needs to be frustrated", Johnson said, adding that people-trafficking "undermines everybody who’s coming here legally, and it undermines people who support immigration, who want people to come here legally and to be integrated properly".

'Just to clarify, Prince Charles is wrong then?'

Nick Ferrari puts Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the spot over his Rwanda migrant plans.@NickFerrariLBC | #BorisOnLBC pic.twitter.com/JpwrgqlL2D

— LBC (@LBC) June 13, 2022