The five living former "prime ministers" of the United Kingdom - David Cameron, Theresa May, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major - have made common cause against Boris Johnson over his plans to modify the Brexit agreement and violate international law in the process. .
However, the conservative "premier" overcame the first parliamentary vote on his controversial Internal Market Law (340 to 263), despite the symbolic rebellion of more than twenty "Tory" deputies who abstained or spoke out against the Government.
David Cameron was the last to join the outcry against Johnson on Monday, in his most notorious political intervention since his resignation in 2016 following his defeat in the EU referendum.
Cameron expressed his "misgivings" at the latest move by the "premier" and warned: "Passing a law in Parliament to break international laws should be absolutely the last spring."
Major and Blair in unison called the bill "shameful" and called the "premier's" attitude "irresponsible" and "dangerous."
"You have been able to unite against you five former first miniters!", Snapped former Labor leader Ed Miliband, who took the reins of the opposition in place of Keir Starmer (isolated by a possible case of coronavirus in your family).
"What you are doing is throwing away the reputation of the UK and its history as a forerunner of the rule of law," Miliband added.
Boris Johnson, however, was not daunted by the unanimous criticism of his predecessors and decided to push for the law, sure of having the numbers with him, despite the rebellion joined by his former Secretary of the Treasury Sajid Javid and his former attorney general. Geoffrey Cox.
Almost alone in the face of danger, in a Parliament half empty by the rules of social distancing, the "premier" reiterated his intention to defend the "territorial integrity" of the United Kingdom at all costs.
"I will not tolerate that the EU has the power to break our country!", Replied the "premier", who assured that Brussels is willing to make an "extreme" interpretation of the EU divorce agreement, to the point of being able to block the movement of goods and food between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
"I never seriously thought that the EU was willing to use a treaty negotiated in good faith to attempt to block or cut off a part of the UK or threaten to destroy economic and territorial unity," Johnson himself wrote in an article in The Daily Telegraph, hours before the parliamentary debate.
The Northern Ireland Protocol, contained in the EU withdrawal agreement, establishes that Belfast would legally form part of the customs territory of the United Kingdom, but would remain "de facto" in the single market to avoid a return to a hard border on land between the two Irish.
The protocol determines that a joint committee should establish "risk" goods (with possible destination to the Republic of Ireland), to which tariffs would be applied in January 2021 in the case of commercial "no agreement".
If there is no commitment by both parties, all goods circulating in the Irish Sea would be considered "at risk".
The Internal Market Act aims to avoid internal customs in the UK and to allow "unhindered" movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
On its first day of parliamentary processing in Westminster, the legal text prompted an agonizing aftermath of the old Brexit battles, when it reaches the amendment phase and is subsequently sent to the House of Lords.
More than twenty Conservative MPs anticipated their intention to vote against or abstain in the first vote on the bill on Monday afternoon, claiming that violation of international law will ruin the UK's reputation.
The internal rebellion was far from compromising the large majority of the Conservative Party in Parliament and passed the first parliamentary process with 77 votes difference.
"The need to violate international law is not clear to me," said Sajid Javid, who resigned last February after losing favor with Boris Johnson's strategist Dominic Cummings, who many consider most responsible for the disruption caused by the "premier".
"One of the great strengths and traditions of this country is respect for the rule of law," said Javid. "Our long reputation for keeping our word has made us a more stable, prosperous and peaceful country."
"What we cannot do is abandon an agreement that we signed nine months ago and rewrite it unilaterally," warned former attorney general Geoffrey Cox, Johnson's main legal adviser during the negotiation phase of the agreement.
"Violating international laws can cause us irreparable and permanent damage in the long term."
The intervention of former Labor leader Ed Miliband reopened the Thunder Box.
Miliband blamed the "premier" for "undoing Brexit" and "compromising the peace process in Northern Ireland".
The Labor deputy recalled how Johnson himself celebrated the signing of the Brexit agreement last year as "a triumph": "He himself negotiated and signed it.How can he now come saying that it is an ambiguous and confusing text? We are talking about his agreement and if someone has failed it has been him. It is time to take responsibility ".
"If we pass this law, we are neither more nor less than empowering the Prime Minister to violate international laws," warned Miliband, who assured that the "signals" that the Johnson Government is sending "make it practically impossible not only a trade agreement with the EU but with other parts of the world. "
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