Thread by @Joe_Mayes

Fact check: the UK signed up to a customs border in the Irish Sea in the divorce treaty, so talk now of threats to `integrity' of UK is a little odd 1/

Evidence for the customs border: GB firms will need to file new paperwork when sending goods to NI, and trucks will need approval from a yet-to-be-built government IT system to cross the Irish Sea. This all happens even under an FTA 2/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The government is spending 355 million pounds to help companies comply with this new red tape. It's all real and it all happens even if Johnson gets a free-trade deal with the EU 3/
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Remember, this is the picture Johnson agreed to in the Northern Ireland protocol to avoid a border on the island of Ireland. And if there's no FTA, tariffs are collected on goods going GB to NI if they're `at risk' of going on into the EU 4/

The U.K. government spelt this out clearly itself in an explainer of the NI protocol. Northern Ireland upholds EU customs rules, and this agreement is designed to operate even if there's no FTA 5/ assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

And what of the `blockade' threat? Could the EU say food imports can't move from GB to NI?

Well, if they did, the UK could just invoke the safeguards that already exist in the NI protocol. No need to break international law 6/ assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

The powers in the Internal Market Bill aren't about food imports. They're about unilaterally:

- waiving paperwork on NI to GB trade
- defining which goods would pay tariffs GB-NI
- restricting effect of EU state aid rules

Let's not confuse the two ends/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Johnson has just acknowledged the Internal Market Bill doesn't address the food imports issue.

``We are not taking powers in this bill to neutralize that threat, but obviously reserve the right to do so''