Thread by @SteveBakerHW

Too many leadership candidates think the backstop is the only problem with the Withdrawal Agreement.

Via bit.ly/AvoidingTheTrap, “What is wrong with the WA” (thread)

The Withdrawal Agreement perpetuates the doctrines of ‘direct effect’ and supremacy of EU law over UK law, obliging UK courts to strike down Acts of Parliament if inconsistent with vague provisions of the WA or of EU laws to which it gives effect.

The WA perpetuates the jurisdiction of the ECJ, a foreign court with no British judge, either directly, or via a backdoor mechanism modelled on the EU’s agreement with Ukraine, under which the arbitral tribunal is bound to refer matters of EU law for decision by the ECJ.

The Withdrawal Agreement includes mechanisms (unique in international law) to deal with breaches that could lead to financial penalties or discriminatory trade sanctions.

The Northern Irish Protocol (‘backstop’) has no exit clause unless agreed by the EU, so is unique for an international treaty. It would trap the UK and severely reduce scope for negotiation on any future agreement.

Under the WA, the UK though nominally leaving the EU, would during the ‘transition period’ still be subject to all EU laws (including new ones), the jurisdiction of the ECJ, the decisions of EU institutions such as the Commission and EU Parliament and ...

... the UK would play no part in the institutions or in the EU legislative process.

Most important of all, the UK (under Art 184) would be legally required to negotiate a future agreement in line with principles in the Political Declaration. Failure to do so would mean being locked into the backstop Protocol with no way out and no legal means of complaint. ...

... This is a fact missed, it seems, by Mrs May and a number of the Conservative leadership contenders. The WA is not merely, as is often claimed, about the mechanism for our withdrawal and arrangements in the short term; ...

... it in effect binds the UK into a permanent relationship with the EU in which it remains subject to many of the constraints of membership, while having no vote.