Internal Market Bill backfires, again
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It is worth evaluating the row over the Internal Market Bill from a distance. Whatever government ministers may claim about the need to protect the integrity of the United Kingdom’s single market, the amendments to the bill were clearly a negotiating gambit. Downing Street had known all along that the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement would grant the EU Commission some oversight of subsidies in Northern Ireland – but, for some reason, that wasn’t a concern before September.
The reality was that, as the negotiating deadline approached, Number 10 looked to increase its leverage in the negotiations over state aid regulations. Dominic Cummings believed it would be difficult to realise his dream of forging a “British Samsung” without breaching the level playing field regulations demanded by the EU. His ingenious plan therefore entailed threatening to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement, then waiting for a panicked European Union, desperate to avoid a regulatory border on the island of Ireland, to make concessions on subsidies for the rest of the UK.
As with many of Cummings’ grand designs, this failed spectacularly. EU officials came out fighting, insisting that the Bill’s amendments not only violated the Withdrawal Agreement (an international treaty) but also undercut the Good Friday Agreement. Crucially, in the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden agreed. “We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,” the now President-elect tweeted.
Today, in his first call with Boris Johnson, Biden spoke “about the importance of implementing Brexit in such a way that upholds the Good Friday Agreement.”
Yet, despite risking a potential diplomatic crisis, Downing Street doesn’t appear to have gained much leverage in discussions over state aid. The EU maintains that Britain will have to sign up to a regime that goes further than that in the EU-Canada trade deal, given the UK economy’s size and proximity to the European single market. Any deal will also likely produce a powerful UK subsidies regulator powerful enough to throw out Cummings’ more imaginative ideas.
Still, Boris Johnson is pushing ahead with the amended Bill and continuing to damage the government in the process. Yesterday, the government suffered an historic 433-165 vote defeat in the House of Lords, with former Conservative Party leader Lord Howard and former Conservative Chancellor Lord Lamont – both known for their Euroscepticism – being among the 44 Conservative dissenters. Such a margin suggests that the Lords are ready for a game of ping-pong and will reject the bill again if its controversial amendments are restored by the government.
There will be more trouble for Number 10 when the bill returns to the Commons, with some Tory MPs questioning the wisdom of reheating a strategy which has proven somewhat counterproductive. Dozens of backbenchers were anxious about the legislation when it first came to a vote two months ago, but nonetheless held their nose and supported the government in the hope that it would trigger a breakthrough in negotiations. That hasn’t happened yet.
Over the coming days, talks in London may yet produce a free trade agreement, but it would be the result of the continent’s economic interests rather than Downing Street’s threats to abrogate international treaties.
NHS ready to roll out vaccine
Health Secretary Matt Hancock was today cautiously optimistic about the prospect of a vaccine by the end of the year, and set out plans to distribute any successful candidate through the National Health Service. “We will be ready to begin a large scale vaccination programme. First to priority groups, as recommended by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, before rolling it out more widely,” Hancock told the Commons.
“Our plans for deployment of a Covid vaccine are built on tried and tested plans for a flu vaccine, which we of course deploy every autumn,” Hancock said. “We do not yet know whether or when a vaccine is approved, but I have tasked the NHS with being ready from any date from 1 December.”
GPs will be given £150m of immediate support, after the government last night wrote to surgeries setting out guidelines for mass vaccination. Care homes, sports halls and small clinics will also take part, with some of them staying open for seven days a week to get the job done.
“The logistics are complex, the uncertainties are real, and the scale of the job is vast. But I know that the NHS, brilliantly assisted by the armed services will be up to the task,” Hancock added.
Mutaz Ahmed
Political Reporter