LONDON — Britain went on Monday with plans to lower post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, risking a clash with the European Union, a split with neighboring Ireland and tensions with the United States.
But the much-anticipated legislation, which would unilaterally drop border controls on goods moving from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland, is perhaps the most revealing of what it says about the changed political landscape since Prime Minister Boris Johnson passed a motion of distrust survived in his conservative Party last week.
Mr Johnson faces a difficult path to push legislation through a parliament emboldened by the uprising against him. Some of his party’s rebels are threatening to oppose the bill because it violates international law.
He took a more aggressive approach championed by his Secretary of State, Liz Truss. Analysts say she is polishing her credentials with hard-line Brexiteers in the party for a possible future leadership challenge against Mr Johnson.
For legislation that has such far-reaching international implications for Britain, it is remarkable how much it is colored by domestic politics. But successive British governments have long viewed Northern Ireland primarily through a domestic lens, and no more than Mr Johnson’s.
“It’s all about this struggle within the Tory party,” said Jonathan Powell, a former chief of staff to Tony Blair, the former prime minister, who has worked extensively on Northern Ireland. “They put the interests of one man before the interests of peace in Northern Ireland and the interests of our relations with the EU and the US”
British officials say the legislation is needed to resolve trade distortions resulting from the complex agreement with Brussels over Northern Ireland, which is a member of the United Kingdom but shares an open border with neighboring Ireland, which is part of the European Union.
To keep the border open, Mr Johnson had accepted checks on goods flowing into Northern Ireland from mainland Britain. But the settlement, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, alienated the main pro-unionist party in the north, which has refused to join a power-sharing government until Britain revises it.
Under the legislation that Ms Truss will present to parliament on Monday afternoon, goods would be divided into green and red lanes. Those heading to Northern Ireland from Britain would no longer be checked, while those heading to the Republic of Ireland would be in the red lane and subject to checks.
The legislation would also no longer recognize the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice to settle disputes, a key point of contention in months of negotiations between London and Brussels to renew parts of the protocol.
Britain has failed to work out a compromise and is essentially saying it will no longer abide by the terms of the agreement. Its unilateral approach has been condemned by the European Commission and the Irish government and has led to warnings from the Biden administration. The United States fears it could jeopardize the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
“Unilateral action is detrimental to mutual trust and a formula for uncertainty,” Maros Sefcovic, a vice president of the European Commission, which led negotiations with Britain over the protocol, said on Twitter after Ms Truss informed him. on the government’s intention to propose the law.
Mr Johnson denied that the legislation violated international law, arguing that Britain, far from undermining the peace agreement, was fulfilling its overriding legal obligation to preserve it. Speaking before the government presented the legislation, he tried to downplay its significance.
“It is a bureaucratic change that has to be implemented,” the prime minister said in an interview with British radio broadcaster LBC. “Frankly, it’s a relatively trivial set of adjustments in the grand scheme of things.”