The Government of Ireland expressed its concern on Tuesday about the future and possible impact of the “internal division” in the British Conservative Party in the Brexit negotiations, after the vote of no confidence against the leader and Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Although Johnson survived Monday’s vote, the leadership has weakened, with Dublin warning on Tuesday that London could “toughen” its stance in negotiations with Brussels over Northern Ireland’s controversial Brexit Protocol to further satisfy the hardliners of the “Tories” (conservatives).
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“That is why we are worried. Of course, whoever the prime minister is, we will work with him, but we do not want Ireland to be part of a strategy to maintain control of the Conservative Party through a hardening stance of the Protocol,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told public broadcaster RTÉ.
The Johnson Executive had already presented legislative plans before this motion of censure to unilaterally cancel parts of the Brexit mechanism for Northern Ireland, which soured the negotiations it is holding with the European Union (EU).
London will unilaterally modify the Brexit Protocol for Northern Ireland
This issue is also preventing the formation of an autonomous regional government in Belfast, as the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refuses to share power with Sinn Féin republicans unless dialogue between London and Brussels does not change. radically the protocol.
“The position of the Irish Government is very clear in this regard. We believe that we can solve these problems.“, stressed the head of diplomacy in Dublin, reiterating that the EU has shown “flexibility” and “pragmatism” to adjust the operation of the protocol.
Coveney hopes that the legislative measures planned by London to act unilaterally are not the “price” that Boris Johnson must pay to maintain “majority support within his own party”.
London, continued the Irish minister, “threatens to publish this week” a bill that “would violate international law” and ignore the “obligations acquired” in the Withdrawal Treaty (of the EU) signed by the two parties.
“I think that would be a big political mistake.because it would cause far more problems than it would solve,” Coveney concluded.
On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson withstood an internal vote of no confidence in the Conservative Party by winning 211 votes to 148 votes against.
Source: Observadora
