Liz Truss may trigger article 16 proceedings against the European Union within days of becoming prime minister, as a legal war with Brussels looms over the Northern Ireland protocol. The foreign secretary and Tory leadership frontrunner is understood to have received fresh advice from trade and legal experts about invoking the emergency clause contained in the post-Brexit deal. It has long been threatened by Truss, but there is renewed interest as the deadline approaches for the UK to respond to legal proceedings launched against it by the EU for failing to implement proper Irish Sea border checks. The deadline for doing so is 15 September – 10 days after the next prime minister will be announced. With a lengthy parliamentary battle expected over the Northern Ireland protocol bill, a senior Truss ally quoted in the Financial Times described the triggering of article 16 as a “stopgap” until the legislation is passed. Though the source said Truss would prefer a negotiated solution with Brussels, triggering article 16 remained an option as long as the talks remained deadlocked. Truss’s antipathy towards the protocol has grown in recent days, after British steel producers were told they would have to pay a 25% tariff to sell some construction products into Northern Ireland. Triggering article 16 would allow either side to take unilateral action if they believed the protocol was causing “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist”, or diversion of trade. Serious difficulties are not defined, giving both sides room for interpretation. The UK government has long said triggering article 16 remains an option, and some will view renewed discussion of the possibility as sabre-rattling designed to please the ardent Brexit-supporting Tory party members who will choose the next prime minister. Over the past year, Truss has studiously lobbied Tory MPs believed to have concerns about her plans, in an attempt to avoid a return of the divisions that plagued the Conservatives from 2016 to 2019.
Sources said the foreign secretary wanted the government to appear united, or else Brussels would believe its threats were empty because Conservative backbenchers could torpedo the most controversial elements of the Northern Ireland protocol bill. John Finucane, the Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast, said “reckless threats” to trigger article 16 were evidence of the UK government’s “total disregard for the democratic wishes of people and businesses here”. He said the protocol was supported by most people, companies and elected politicians in the Northern Irish assembly, but the Conservatives had tried fiercely to undermine it. Finucane urged Truss to “get back to the table with the EU to give certainty and stability to our businesses”. Earlier this month, the UK triggered its own dispute proceedings with the EU, accusing it of breaching the Brexit treaty by freezing it out of scientific research programmes following the row over Northern Ireland. Truss said there had been a “clear breach” of the trade and cooperation agreement, with her department writing to Brussels requesting formal dispute talks. The UK government claimed the EU was causing serious damage to research and development in both the UK and EU member states, with Britain frozen out of the science research programme Horizon; Copernicus, the Earth observation programme, which provides data on climate change; Euratom, the nuclear research programme; and space surveillance and tracking.