All this talk of "concessions" and a parliamentary "lock" on the parts of #UKInternalMarketBill overriding the #Brexit withdrawal agreement smack of the Tory Party negotiating with itself.

It's a safety catch for the revolver...handed to a PM with an 80 seat majority! /1

It reminds me of the Chequers deal days when the Tory party congratulated itself for triangulating a position of customs that had no bearing to what EU could accept....this plan as reported by @GeorgeWParker and others feels similar /2

https://www.ft.com/content/d9d3ab6e-7f11-4243-aeed-d715e0b4876c

From an EU perspective you have to realise that sections 42 to 45 of the UKIM wholly disapply obligations of the Northern Irish Protocol. It is nuclear. (We are promised same for 'at risk' goods question in autumn Finance Bill). /3

Putting the trigger in the hands of a Parliament where a) @BorisJohnson has an 80 seat majority and b) it would be used in a 'get Brexit done' moment of a 'no deal' is no insurance policy at all, since in practice this is about UK unilaterally re-writing NIP in a 'no deal'/4

This isn't to say all is lost.

The EU is clearly not going to walk away; it will keep talking, see if it can get an FTA deal that indirectly solves these issues, and until UKIM bill is actually law, still time for UK Gov to remove those clauses /5

But this is above all a party management exercise to *get the UKIM bill onto the statute book* - which viewed from that lens is actually an act of aggression, not compromise with the EU. ENDS