The government has said it may drop key clauses from a bill that would breach international law by letting the UK unilaterally rewrite parts of the Brexit departure agreement, as MPs prepared to vote through the controversial bill.
The reintroduction of the clauses, which had been rejected by the House of Lords, looked set to inflame tensions between the negotiating sides at a crucial point in the Brexit talks. The concession is conditional on the two sides agreeing a final trade deal, the next step of the Brexit process, for which last-ditch talks are still taking place.
Speaking in the debate before the vote, Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said the row over the clauses had been “calamitous embarrassing and toxic” for the government and had been opposed by everyone from Conservative grandees such as Michael Howard and William Hague, to the archbishop of Canterbury and US president-elect Joe Biden.
He said it would be hard for the international community to trust that the clauses would be removed.
“There’s one thing this whole story saga has shown the world, I’m afraid, is that this government cannot be trusted, because they are willing to rip up international agreements they made less than a year ago.”
In a sign of softening attitudes, a government spokesman said it had agreed via the UK-EU joint committee, a bilateral body of ministers that deals with the withdrawal agreement, to iron out disagreements over the document, signed in January.
The breach of international law in the clauses caused an outcry among MPs and the resignation of the government’s top lawyer. The House of Lords voted overwhelmingly to amend it to remove the elements that would breach international law.
Ministers have said these would be restored by the Commons. If this happens, the bill would return to the Lords as part of a process known as ping-pong – but agreement on a trade bill could end the legislative impasse.
The spokesman said the UK would be “prepared to remove clause 44 of the UK internal market bill, concerning export declarations… to deactivate clauses 45 and 47, concerning state aid.”
Clause 45 of the bill sets out that the UK government could change import and export procedures for goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and amend elements of the associated Northern Ireland protocol, “notwithstanding any relevant international or domestic law with which they may be incompatible or inconsistent”.
The government’s commitment appeared to mollify some Conservative MPs in the Lords. Bob Neill, the chair of the Commons justice committee, said it would remove the clause that had “caused most concern to legal commentators … a significant gesture of good faith on Her Majesty’s government’s part and would hopefully remove some of the real concerns that have been expressed.”
Business minister, Paul Scully, who opened the debate, said the government was “keen to work in partnership as we do some difficult negotiations … we want to solve these problems rather than have to legislate for them.”
The measures, which the government openly conceded would breach international law, prompted criticism from both opposition parties and EU politicians, even if many people did see it as primarily a lever for Brexit negotiations.
The UK government has insisted the clauses are necessary as a failsafe to preserve goods going to Northern Ireland in the event of a disorderly Brexit once the transition period finishes at the end of the year, with tariffs added to goods from the rest of the UK seen as “at risk” of entering the EU by going on to the Republic of Ireland.
The statement followed last-minute talks in Brussels on Monday between Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, and Maroš Šefčovič, the vice-president of the European commission.
The UK government statement added: “Good progress continues to be made regarding the decision as to which goods are ‘at risk’ of entering the EU market. Talks continue this afternoon.
“In the light of those discussions, the government will keep under review the content of the forthcoming taxation bill.”
The taxation bill, another post-Brexit measure expected in the Commons imminently, had also been predicted to contain clauses breaching international law.