Plans to rip up the Brexit withdrawal agreement criticised by politicians

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, has said that the “damage to the economy will be entirely Tory inflicted” if withdrawal agreement is scrapped

Political figures have described the UK government’s reported plan to rip up the EU withdrawal agreement as a “treacherous betrayal” by “charlatans”.

Boris Johnson is reportedly planning new legislation that would override key parts of the withdrawal agreement, the treaty in which would seal the UK’s exit from the European Union in January, in a move that could risk collapsing trade deals, as reported by the Financial Times (FT).

Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has responded cautiously saying that the UK wants “the best of two worlds”.

This comes after the online retail giant Amazon has said that it will create a further 7,000 jobs in the UK this year to meet the growing demand of its services, it will be taking its total permanent UK workforce to over 40,000 employees.

The prime minister is also presumed to announce on Monday that ending the trade talks, if there is no agreement by a meeting of EU leaders on the 15th of October, would remain a “good outcome for the UK”.

George Eustice, the Environment Secretary has also defended the government’s plans since the FT report first emerged, saying that:

“We’re not moving the goalposts.”

The pre-briefed words from Boris Johnson arrived as the FT reported that sections of the Internal Market Bill, set to be published on Wednesday, are expected to “eliminate” the legal power of the Withdrawal Agreement in areas that includes state aid and Northern Ireland customs.

As part of the agreements of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the region is expected to continue to follow some EU regulations after the transition period ends next year, in order to ensure that there is no hard border.

There will apparently be “some checks on some goods” arriving into the country of Northern Ireland from Great Britain meaning that “some customs processes, but not customs checks,” Mr Eustice added.

Mr Barnier has urged the UK to keep to its commitments, saying: “We demand quite simply, and calmly, and until the end, that the political commitments in the text agreed by Boris Johnson be legally translated into this treaty.”

Mr Eastwood told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “It’s absolutely astonishing that any government who says they want to go and do trade deals around the world would just rip up an agreement that they made a few months ago with the European Union.”

“And what they would be doing in that would be undermining the Good Friday Agreement, which is an agreement voted for by the vast majority of people on the island of Ireland, they’d be risking a hard border in our country and they’d be threatening the peace and security that we’ve built up over decades.”

“It would be the most reckless act that a British government, and they’ve made many reckless acts in Ireland … in a long, long time and if they do this their international credibility I think would be shot to pieces.”

This comes after the new director general for the BBC, Tim Davie, has said that he doesn’t support any switch from the current licence fee system to a new subscription service for the national broadcaster.