Anti-Brexit campaigners launch bid to stop ‘unlawful’ deal getting to Parliament

Pro-remain activists are preparing to lodge legal action to try and ban the Government from putting its proposed Withdrawal Agreement before Parliament.

Jo Maugham QC says it goes against legislation which says it is ‘unlawful’ for the UK into an arrangement which would see Northern Ireland forming part of a separate customs territory to Great Britain.

He plans to lodge a petition at Scotland’s highest civil court tomorrow and expects it to be heard on Friday, a day before the agreement is due to to be debated at a special sitting in Westminster.

If the Court of Session finds the proposal unlawful, he says the Government will be obliged to request an extension to Brexit negotiations.

Boris Johnson would be bound to do so by the Benn Act, which says the Prime Minister must ask the EU for a delay if Parliament does not agree a deal by Saturday.

Reports suggest a border in the Irish Sea with differing customs arrangements for Northern Ireland than elsewhere in the UK may form part of the Withdrawal Agreement, with negotiations ongoing in Brussels.

The part of section 55 of Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 mentioned by Mr Maugham says: ‘It shall be unlawful for Her Majesty’s Government to enter into arrangements under which Northern Ireland forms part of a separate customs territory to Great Britain.’

The campaigner added: ‘We do not understand how the Government might have come to negotiate a Withdrawal Agreement in terms that breach amendments tabled by its own European Research Group.

‘Unless and until Section 55 is repealed by the UK Parliament it is simply not open, as a matter of law, for the United Kingdom to enter into such an agreement.’