Brexit LIVE: Liz Truss’ masterplan has unforeseen issue of keeping UK in European court
Scottish independence ‘ten times worse than Brexit’ says MSP
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
The Foreign Secretary presented the Northern Ireland Bill last week in a bid to scrap the hated Brexit Protocol.
This week, the European Court of Human Rights blocked Priti Patel’s plan to send refugees to Rwanda in a last-minute rushed decision.
Although the ECHR has nothing to do with the European Union, the ruling has opened a debate on whether Brexit Britain should continue to operate under the jurisdiction of European judges.
But according to former British MEP Daniel Hannan, the only reason left for the UK to submit to the European Convention and its ECHR is that it is written into the Belfast Agreement and the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
If Liz Truss wants to change the Protocol and preserve the Belfast Agreement, she has to submit to the letter of the latter and therefore also to the text of the European Convention on Human Rights, he argued.
Writing for The Telegraph, he said: “There is, in truth, only one unambiguous argument for submitting to the Convention, namely that it is written into the Belfast Agreement and Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
“Britain is currently seeking to preserve the letter and spirit of the former by altering the Northern Ireland Protocol and restoring power-sharing.
“Without those clauses, there would be no case left for staying in the ECHR at all. Funny how things work out.”
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES…
Iain Duncan Smith slams Westminster ‘elites’ standing in way of Brexit Britain’s potential
Britain is failing to reap the benefits of leaving the European Union because it is held back by the “ruling elites” in Westminster, Whitehall and the professions who think the country is doomed to decline, according to the authors of a major report from the Centre for Brexit Policy.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith is among the contributors who are appalled at the “defeatist mindset” they argue has gripped many decision-makers.
They attack the “myth” that Britain is a fading force on the world stage and argue the “declinist mentality” of members of the “governing elite” drove them to support joining the European Economic Community.
The report, whose co-authors include Cambridge University historian and former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer, warns: “The notion that we are a country in decline is deeply ingrained in our elites, especially Whitehall and Westminster. It explains why we joined the EU and why we are struggling to escape its orbit even after our departure.
“How different would our view of the world and of our role in it be if we thought of ourselves as a new and rising force, rather than a nation in decline? Whether post-Brexit Britain will in fact turn out to be a rising or a declining force is not determined by history or geography: it is essentially in our own hands.”
The report, Defining Britain’s Role in the World after Brexit, will be launched this week and urges those in the UK’s corridors of power to revitalise links with the United States and the Commonwealth to check the rise of authoritarian regimes.
It states: “Above all, Britain needs to re-establish a cohesive national purpose respectful of our past and our traditions and patriotic without being jingoistic. The most powerful remedy available to the Government to resolve national division is to ensure that Brexit is a tangible success and to make it unambiguously irreversible.”
Source: Read Full Article