The European Union may suspend elements of the Brexit withdrawal deal if Britain uses Article 16 to put the Northern Ireland protocol on ice, Ireland’s foreign minister has suggested.
Simon Coveney said the bloc would respond in a “very serious way” if the UK triggered the clause, adding of the overall divorce deal: “If one is being set aside, there is a danger that the other will also be set aside by the EU.”
Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg is facing calls to resign over the way the government handled the vote on parliamentary standards last week.
Boris Johnson was forced into a screeching U-turn on plans to rip up the Commons standards regime, having whipped his MPs to back them in a vote that would also have put Owen Paterson’s expected 30-day suspension for lobbying on the back burner.
Some 100 Conservative MPs were part of a swift and vociferous backlash to the scheme, which saw Mr Rees-Mogg at the despatch box less than 24 hours later, rowing back on it. On Sunday Labour said the leader of the House’s position was “untenable”.
