LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2020) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched on Monday an unprecedented attack against the European Union (EU), accusing the bloc of negotiating the post-Brexit deal with a "revolver" on the table and threatening the United Kingdom�s territorial integrity, as he pushed in Parliament for the passage of a bill that would override part of the withdrawal agreement.
"I have to say that absurd and self-defeating as that action would be, even as we debate this matter the EU has not taken that particular revolver off the table," Johnson said at the beginning of the first parliamentary debate on the Internal Market Bill.
The proposed legislation, which was introduced to the UK parliament last week, sent shockwaves through the Brexit negotiation process, as it proposes to roll back some of the commitments on state aid and customs checks on goods entering Northern Ireland.
Before opening the debate in the House of Commons, Johnson told lawmakers that the bill must be passed to prevent the EU from dividing the UK once Brexit has been fully delivered.
I regret to have to tell the House that in recent months the EU has suggested that it is willing to go to extreme and unreasonable lengths, he added.
According to Johnson, Brussels is threatening to "carve tariff borders across our own country, divide our own land, change the very economic geography of the UK."
Labour's shadow business secretary, Ed Miliband, who stood in for Labour leader Keir Starmer, accused Johnson of "incompetence" and "legislative hooliganism."
"I don't understand this. He signed the deal, it's his deal, it is the deal that he said would protect the people of Northern Ireland," Miliband said, after recalling that the prime minister had previously hailed the withdrawal agreement he inked before leaving the EU on January 31.
Lawmakers are due to vote on the Internal Market Bill for the first time later on Monday, and although the ruling Conservative Party has an 80-strong majority in the House of Commons, many Tories have voiced their concerned over the potential damage unilaterally overriding an international treaty could have on UK�s reputation.
