The Tory MP for Stone insisted the EU has never recognised the UK’s newfound sovereignty during Brexit talks. Sir Bill also stated the UK Internal Market Bill was an essential piece of legislation to stop Britain being locked into EU jurisdiction. Due to the new legislation, EU officials have threatened to take legal action against the UK over the violation of the withdrawal agreement.
Writing for Conservative Home, he said: “The EU pursues a cardinal principle: that we must not benefit from Brexit.
“The Withdrawal Agreement was written on the basis of recognising our sovereignty – which has not happened.
“This UK Internal Market Bill is a necessary insurance policy preventing us from subjection to EU jurisdiction, and ensures the necessary competitiveness upon which the jobs and businesses of every voter in every constituency depends, with our own state aid rules.
“The undemocratic European Commission threatens to take legal action against the UK for what is not even an established breach of international law.
“They dare to tell our democratic sovereign Parliament to abandon essential proposals in this Bill.
“What a nerve.”
In particular, Sir Bill pointed to several cases whereby the EU has violated international agreements.
The MP highlighted the case whereby now European Central Bank head, Christine Lagarde, admitted the bloc violated EU rules over the bail outs to Greece and Ireland in 2010.
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Peter Cleppe, a Brussels-based research fellow with the think tank Property Rights Alliance said: “The ECB prints money, lends it to banks at artificially low rates, and then buys up government bonds from banks, instead of directly from governments, which would be outright illegal.
“Technically, they claim it’s legal, but of course this amounts to printing money to lend it to governments, so it violates the spirit of the ban on monetary financing.
“In a democracy, governments should be financed by parliaments, not by central banks.”
The controversy over the UK Internal Market Bill is found in the provisions of state aid within the Northern Ireland protocol.
While Northern Ireland would remain tied to the EU’s state aid mechanism under the protocol, under the new UK legislation, only the Secretary of State has the power to determine the level of aid reported to the Commission.
In response to this, one EU diplomatic source told Express.co.uk: “What we have discussed amongst ourselves is that we will take a look at the end of September, early October, to see what the options are.
“The next negotiating round on September 27 is quite an important one because we really need to get an indication that progress is being made on two fronts [trade talks and the UK Internal Market Bill].
“And if not, then we will carefully consider our options.”
