Michael Gove and Boris Johnson suffer brutal attack on Brexit promise ‘It’s untrue!’
Brexit: Gove slammed over ‘untrue’ claims by Ben Habib
Ben Habib accused Michael Gove of misleading the people of Britain when he stated in the House of Commons on December 9, 2020 that for EU state aid laws to apply in Great Britain, as distinct from Northern Ireland, a company in Great Britain would have to have a direct link with Northern Ireland. The former Brexit Party MEP told Brexit Unlocked this has not been the case since the UK’s post-Brexit transition with the European Union expired on December 31, 2020.
Mr Habib said: “Today I thought I’d talk about sovereignty and the importance of the entire United Kingdom, leaving the clutches of European Union law.
“Now, people might recall that in 2019, when the Prime Minister stood in the general election, he said that the entire United Kingdom would leave the EU hole as one United Kingdom.
“At the time, I pointed out repeatedly, that actually, that wasn’t the case, that there would be a border down the Irish Sea and that EU state aid laws applied in Northern Ireland.
“If you give state aid to someone in Great Britain, who trades with Northern Ireland, they factor you’ve actually supported the Northern Irish economy.
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“So I was very concerned that these EU state aid laws that he tas taken on for Northern Ireland would creep back into the United Kingdom.
“That was denied repeatedly by the Government and then Michael Gove, got up in the House of Commons on December 9, and he said, unequivocally, that for EU state aid laws to apply in Great Britain, as distinct from Northern Ireland, a company in Great Britain would have to have a direct link with Northern Ireland, not an indirect or tangential one.”
Michale Gove said in the House of Commons on December 9 2020: “The concern that many colleagues had was that a company in Great Britain, with only a peripheral linked commercial operation in Northern Ireland, could be caught inadvertently by the tests within the protocols text, that would not have been acceptable., nor was it what the protocol had envisaged.
“That’s why I’m pleased the agreement we have addresses that risk, it means that firms in Great Britain stay outside state aid rules, where there is no genuine and direct link to Northern Ireland and no real foreseeable impact on Northern Ireland EU trade.”
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The former Brexit Party MEP continued: “Well, actually, I’ve just received a copy of a document that was published last week by the European Commission 18th of January, from the Director General of Competition.
“On page seven of this document, it states: In particular aid granted by the United Kingdom to undertakings that are not located in Northern Ireland may also fall under Article 10 of the Northern Irish protocol. Article 10 is the article which deals with EU state aid law.
“It goes on to say that for example, any tax scheme, granting a direct and this is the key bit or indirect benefit to any firm trading with Northern Ireland would get caught by this law.
“Now what that means is that any tax break given by the government, to a sector or to companies in Great Britain, that happened to trade with Northern Ireland, are going to be caught by EU state aid laws, and they will be adjudicated by the European Court of Justice.
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“So folks, we have a member of Cabinet, the Chairman of the Joint Committee of the EU in the United Kingdom, saying something in the commons, which is patently untrue.
“So we haven’t got back sovereignty from the European Union. We’ve got creeping EU state aid law in Great Britain and absolutely applied in Northern Ireland.
“It’s not just about sovereignty, as important as that is, this is about trusting the government.
“How can we have one of the most senior cabinet ministers on December 9, saying something isn’t so when it absolutely is, and he must have known it was so when he said it.
“So when Boris Johnson gets up in the House of Commons or Michael Gove more pertinently, in this case gets up in the House of Commons and says, we’ve got back control of our laws, our borders, our cash our fish, don’t believe them. They haven’t done it yet, there’s more work to be done.”
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