Ireland issued an extraordinary warning to countries around the world on Wednesday not to do trade deals with Britain unless they are “confident” they will keep their word.
Dublin’s deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar — a key figure in securing the 2019 Brexit deal signed by Boris Johnson — spoke out as Brussels prepared to back down over stringent checks on trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.
With the UK threatening to suspend the so-called Northern Ireland protocol unless it is overhauled, the EU was on Wednesday setting out plans to significantly ease checks on food, plants and medicines.
But Brexit minister David Frost wants the EU to go much further and remove the European Court of Justice’s oversight of the protocol — a red line for Brussels.
In a series of tweets, Mr Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings appeared to suggest that the Prime Minister didn’t understand the Brexit deal or the EU customs union when he agreed the withdrawal treaty which took Britain out of the bloc. He added that “getting Brexit done” was “1000x” more important than upholding international law.
The remarks drew a barbed response from Mr Varadkar who told RTE that they indicated the UK had acted in “bad faith”. “If the British Government doesn’t honour its agreements, it doesn’t adhere to treaties it signs, that must apply to everyone else too,” Mr Varadkar said.
“At the moment they’re trying to negotiate new trade agreements... Surely the message must go out to all countries around the world that this is a British Government that doesn’t necessarily keep its word and doesn’t necessarily honour the agreements it makes. And you shouldn’t make any agreements with them until such time as you’re confident that they keep their promises.”
Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden told Sky News the sticking point of the ECJ was a “major issue for us” but there were early indications today that the EU’s proposals could avert a major escalation in the latest dispute.
