Anglican bishops warn breaching Brexit divorce agreement could undermine peace in Northern Ireland

Image: ICN/JS

Source: FT/CoE

Leaders of the UK's Anglican churches have warned the government that legislation breaching part of the Brexit divorce agreement the government signed with the European Union will set a "disastrous precedent" and could undermine peace in Northern Ireland.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of Wales John Davies, Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church Mark Strangeset out their concerns in a letter in the Financial Times on Monday.

The Bishops say "We are taking the rare step of writing together because the decisions implemented in this bill will profoundly affect the future of our countries and the relationships between them. The bill represents a profound shift in how trading relationships within the UK will be regulated and governed. This will not be a return to a trade regime that existed before UK joined the EU; it will be an entirely novel system, replacing one that evolved slowly and by careful negotiation over decades."

"The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd have made clear that the bill's weakening of both the principles and the effect of devolved policymaking is of constitutional significance.

They say: "… if the bill is made law without consent from devolved legislatures … this will further undermine trust and goodwill among those who govern the different parts of the UK. "

They point out that the bill "currently asks the country's highest lawmaking body to equip a government minister to break international law. This has enormous moral, as well as political and legal, consequences."

"We believe this would create a disastrous precedent. It is particularly disturbing for all of us who feel a sense of duty and responsibility to the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement - that international treaty on which peace and stability within and between the UK and Ireland depends. The UK negotiated the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU to "protect the 1998 Agreement in all its dimensions". One year on, in this bill, the UK government is not only preparing to break the protocol, but also to breach a fundamental tenet of the agreement: namely by limiting the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights in Northern Ireland law.

If carefully negotiated terms are not honoured and laws can be "legally" broken, on what foundations does our democracy stand?

A total of 113 peers are discussing the bill this week in the House of Lords. The Archbishop of Canterbury is one of 113 peers due to speak in the two day second reading debate.

Read the full letter in today's Financial Times here: www.ft.com/content/e2e8c1d6-edd4-46d2-bef8-8c69199dc151

On 28 August 2019 a group of bishops issued an open letter warning of the dangers of a 'no-deal' Brexit
See: www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/bishops-issue-open-letter-brexit