The bill has poisoned relations with the EU, raising fears of a trade war and the prospect of British scientists being excluded from a €95bn research programme, but is expected to survive the leadership contest. Downing Street said the proposed legislation, which would override parts of the protocol, was “agreed policy” and would continue to go through the Commons while outgoing Prime Minister Johnson leads a caretaker government. The bill, which began line-by-line scrutiny on the floor of the House of Commons on Wednesday, is expected to face stiff opposition when it reaches the House of Lords. None of the Tory leadership contenders – including former chancellor Rishi Sunak, trade secretary Penny Mordaunt and foreign secretary Liz Truss – have pledged to scrap it. Any such move would be unpopular with some MPs and Tory party members. Sunak resisted the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill while in the Cabinet, warning it could lead to EU retaliation. However, the former chancellor on Monday reassured members of the European Inquiry Group, the Tory MPs’ caucus pro-Brexit, in a private meeting that he would allow the bill to pass without amendment, according to those present. An ally of Sunak said: “Rishi would have let the bill go through, but there would have been a different tone.” Sunak’s spokeswoman declined to comment. A senior ERG source said they were reassured by Sunak’s comments, but said no senior member of the group was likely to back the former chancellor in the leadership contest. “We are interested in other things than Brexit,” the source said. “We have absolutely no commitment to cut taxes. The vision he gave us was not a vision of hope – it was frankly managerial.” The ERG met on Wednesday to discuss the leadership contest, but the group – believed to number dozens of members – will not endorse a single candidate, with support split between right-wing challengers Truss, Attorney General Suella Braverman and former minister Equality Kemi Bandenos. The pyre near the Rathcoole estate in County Antrim © Paul McErlane/FT A cabinet member predicted that even if the protocol bill were to reach the statute book, Johnson’s removal from Downing Street would make a negotiated settlement more likely. “There is no trust at the moment, but a new leader would change everything,” a cabinet minister said, arguing that Brussels and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, would want to work with a new leader – particularly if he was Sunak. An EU diplomat said: “A new face always makes a difference. It provides an opportunity. One approach would be to widen the debate on Northern Ireland into a much broader effort to restart the relationship.” Officials speculated that areas for possible discussion as part of a major Northern Ireland deal could include untying the UK’s membership of the Horizon Europe science program and the prospect of a veterinary deal to reduce border friction. Last month, Truss unveiled the protocol bill, saying it would “fix” practical problems with the deal that Brussels refuses to resolve, but EU officials warn the legislation will exacerbate tensions. Truss argued that the protocol has created difficulties in the supply of goods to Northern Ireland from Britain and is undermining the 1998 Good Friday Agreement between nationalists and unionists that ended three decades of conflict. The row over the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, which has gridlocked local politics in the region, has come on top of bonfires and parades held annually by unionists and loyalists on July 11-12 to celebrate their British identity . Richard Bell: “The protocol is a mess. They treat us like we’re not British’ © Paul McErlane/FT A pyre, near the privately owned Rathcoole estate in County Antrim, was festooned with signs reading ‘Protocol must go’ and ‘Compromise = sell out’ as a band played ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. “I’d like to see Liz Truss come in. She’s tough on protocol and what I call the EU dictatorship,” said Richard Bell, 79, a retired electrical engineer, watching a marching band in north Belfast. “The protocol is a mess. They treat us like we’re not British,” he added as protesters marked the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Victor Molyneaux: ‘I don’t think the Conservatives have anyone to put in that I would trust’ © Paul McErlane/FT The Democratic Unionist Party has paralyzed local politics, boycotting the region’s power-sharing assembly and executive until the Irish Sea border goes away. James McCluskey, 33, who works in banking, feared that if we “give an inch, then an inch, then an inch . . . eventually I will show my passport to go to Scotland.’ He supported the bill’s proposal for a “green lane” for goods originating in Great Britain and residing in Northern Ireland. But while they celebrated their Britishness in the ‘Twelfth’, many unionists expressed little interest in who would be their next prime minister. “I don’t think the Conservatives have anyone to put in that I would trust,” said Victor Molyneaux, 63, an HGV driver.
