The controversial Internal Market Bill could not only violate the Withdrawal Agreement signed by the Johnson government with Brussels last year, but also strain trading relationships between the four constituents of the UK: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Interventions by leaders of the Church of England on pressing issues of the day are influential, given the context of the long history of the relationship between the church and UK parliament. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the bishops of London, Durham and Winchester and 21 other bishops sit in the House of Lords. The government defended the bill on the ground that it is needed as a ‘safety net’ in the post-Brexit trade arrangements. The church leaders added: “The UK negotiated the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU to ‘protect the 1998 Agreement in all its dimensions’.

Source: Hindustan Times October 19, 2020 12:24 UTC