Emily Thornberry brands it “shameful” for UK to play “fast and loose” with international law

The Labour MP sighed when Sky News presenter Kay Burley brought up comments made by former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings about the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

She told the programme: “I think we step down as a country, we don’t have the same international reputation, if our word isn’t our bond.

“I think it’s appalling that people would even think of representing our country as signing up to an agreement knowing that they weren’t going to implement it – I think it’s appalling.”

The Labour MP hailed the olive branch being extended by the EU to resolve the problems of post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland, calling them a “good basis for negotiation” adding that she did not believe the UK Government should reject the deal which would see the cutting of 80% of regulatory checks on the movement of goods between the UK and Ireland.

She said: “We can’t just continue to keep kicking the can down the road, which is what we’re doing.

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“There being stability in Northern Ireland is important for all kinds of reasons, obviously politically, but also economically.”

“I continue to be a bit concerned about medicines. What I want, and I have told the Europeans this, is that we must allow a British doctor in Belfast to be able to prescribe the same medicines as he would get prescribed in Bolton.”

“I’m glad to see that attempts are being made to make it more workable and I want to see that on both sides.

“I think once we have sorted out the issue of Northern Ireland, then there are all kinds of issues with our trade with the rest of Europe, all kinds of holes within the agreement.”

She added: “I acknowledge that they are doing a good job in terms of continuing to negotiate. Let’s make sure that they do actually agree something so they patch the holes in the agreement that they signed that wasn’t really fit for purpose in the first place.”