Brexit climbdown as UK abandons bid to strip EU judges of Northern Ireland protocol role

The UK has abandoned its attempt to strip EU judges of the power to oversee the Northern Ireland protocol, in another Brexit climbdown.

The U-turn – denied by Downing Street just days ago – would allow the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to interpret the agreement, despite repeated pledges to “remove” its role.

The move comes after David Frost, the Brexit minister, also pulled back from threats to trigger Article 16 of the Protocol, despite Unionist anger over the trade barrier created in the Irish Sea.

In October, Lord Frost travelled to Lisbon to vow the ECJ would not be allowed to have a remit – but new UK proposals would see it interpret matters of EU law.

Disputes would be settled by an independent arbitration panel, rather than the European Commission, a model offered to Brussels by Switzerland.

The climbdown also follows the UK government quietly issuing more fishing licences to French boats, helping to calm a second Brexit dispute that raged in the autumn.

However, the EU appeared to stamp on even the compromise plan for the protocol, with disputes over customs declarations and physical checks on goods also set to tumble on into 2022.

At a Brussels press conference, Maros Sefcovic, the commission vice-president, said the UK signed up to the ECJ’s existing remit, so it was “a topic we are not ready to include in our discussions”.

Jenny Chapman, Labour’s Brexit spokeswoman, attacked the government’s “incompetent approach to these negotiations that is starting to wear thin with the public who are paying for it all”.

“And all this is happening without the voice of Northern Ireland in the room,” she told The Independent.

“The fact that Johnson’s government was prepared to use the issue of access to medicines for UK citizens as leverage tells you a lot about their priorities.”

That dispute – to ease the flow of medicines from Britain to Northern Ireland – is now likely to be settled, after the UK agreed to seek a piecemeal agreement on protocol clashes.

Brussels has welcomed that approach as the UK finally waking up to reality, after it insisted there was no question of scrapping the ECJ role, given Northern Ireland remains in its single market.

But it is certain to infuriate many Conservative backbenchers and the Unionist parties, who face perilous elections to the Stormont assembly next year.

A government source said: “Since the EU won’t address all the issues we put on the table now, we are willing to look at interim solutions, which deal with the most acute problems.

“But any such interim agreement must put a stop to the ECJ settling disputes between us and the EU, now and in the future.”

The choice of words allows for the court to retain jurisdiction to interpret matters of EU law – a concession first made by the prime minister a year ago.