Brexit back in crisis as Britain threatens to undercut divorce pact

Elizabeth Piper - Britain’s tortuous divorce from the European Union veered into fresh crisis on Monday after London signalled it could undermine the exit agreement with Brussels unless free trade terms are agreed by next month. In yet another twist to the four-year saga since Britain voted narrowly to quit the EU, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government was reportedly planning new legislation to override parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement it signed in January. That could potentially jeopardise the whole treaty and create frictions in British-ruled Northern Ireland where special arrangements had been made to avoid a hard border with Ireland to the south that could be detrimental to a peace agreement. Britain said it would honour the deal and was simply offering clarifications to avoid any future legal difficulties. But the Financial Times newspaper cited three people as saying the proposed internal market bill was expected to “eliminate the legal force of parts of the withdrawal agreement” in areas including state aid and Northern Ireland customs. EU diplomats were aghast, cautioning that such a step — leaked on the eve of new talks in London — would tarnish Britain’s global prestige and heighten chances of a tumultuous final disentangling from the bloc on December 31. Sterling fell against the dollar and euro. Britain said it was committed to the divorce deal. “We are taking limited and reasonable steps to clarify specific elements of the Northern Ireland Protocol in domestic law to remove any ambiguity and to ensure the government is always able to deliver on its commitments’’, a spokesman for Johnson said. “As a responsible government, we cannot allow the peace process or the UK’s internal market to inadvertently be compromised by unintended consequences of the protocol’’. Britain left the EU on January 31 but talks on a new trade deal before the end of a status-quo transition arrangement in December have snagged on state aid rules and fishing. London has set a deadline of October 15 to strike a deal. — Reuters