Boris Johnson risks turning Britain into an international pariah in the eyes of the new American President by pressing ahead with Brexit legislation that breaks international law, Keir Starmer has warned.
The Labour leader has called on Downing Street to scrap the controversial Internal Market Bill if it wants to foster a close relationship with Joe Biden.
Starmer said the President-elect was a passionate advocate of the Northern Irish Good Friday agreement which could be undermined by the bill which drops agreements with the EU over exports.
Starmer wrote about Biden in the Guardian newspaper: “He, like governments across the world, will take a dim view if our Prime Minister ploughs ahead with proposals to undermine that agreement."
The Labour leader added: “If the Government is serious about a reset in its relationship with the United States, then it should take an early first step and drop these proposals.”
But a Tory cabinet Minister signalled that the government will plough ahead with the bill which is being voted on in the House of Lords on Monday afternoon.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said the Government would reinstate controversial clauses if, as expected, peers strip the bill in votes in the Lords on Monday.
Eustice said: “The UK Internal Market Bill is not about undermining the Belfast Agreement, it’s about standing behind it, making sure that it works and looking after the interests of Northern Ireland, making sure the peace and stability that’s been hard won there can carry on.”
Biden, who is proud of his Irish heritage, has warned that the agreement cannot “become a casualty of Brexit”.
He warned during his campaign against Donald Trump that a trade deal with the US is “contingent” on the prevention of a return to a hard border on the island of Ireland.
