Gordon Brown asserted that the United Kingdom is “at war with the United States over Ireland” amidst resistance from American legislators to efforts to dismantle the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Political editor Beth Rigby, the former prime minister criticized Boris Johnson’s administration for its attitude to international accords and claimed it had a strategy to address the cost of living crisis.
Without mending trade links with major export markets, he argued, the economic strain would last for decades.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr. Brown also asserted that Boris Johnson had no strategy to reduce the cost of living and urged him to go on television to explain “what has to be done” in advance of what is anticipated to be a severe decline in living standards over the next few months.
The former Labour prime minister stated that he did not desire to make personal criticisms of Mr. Johnson, but he did make a critical allusion to Mr. Johnson’s widely derided CBI speech last November, in which he “spoke about Peppa Pig instead of industrial policy.”
Mr. Brown also reflected on his earlier encounters with Vladimir Putin and the death of Alexander Litvinenko on British territory in 2006, stating that the United Kingdom was aware at the time that Mr. Putin was sending further assassins into the country to assassinate others.
His most compelling remarks were the impact of British policies on the Northern Ireland Protocol across the Atlantic.
The protocol oversees Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements, but implementation issues have led to a political stalemate, with unionists withdrawing from power-sharing unless they are rectified.
This week, legislation aimed at dismantling portions of the agreement cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons, despite receiving scathing criticism from MPs including another former prime minister, Theresa May, and putting Britain on a collision course with the EU.
It has also aroused eyebrows among prominent U.S. lawmakers in Washington.
Mr. Brown stated that to achieve economic recovery, the United Kingdom must rebuild its trading relationships with Europe and the United States, but that it is “at war” with both.
He stated, “We are at war with the United States over Ireland because the United States would not sign a trade agreement with the United Kingdom as long as we cannot resolve the concerns linked to Ireland.
Mr. Brown stated that this will be the case regardless of whether or not US President Joe Biden continues to support a trade agreement.
He stated, “He may believe so, but the American Congress will not agree.”
“There is no prospect of a trade deal between Britain and the United States unless we can resolve the issues in Ireland, and, of course, there is no chance of establishing stronger trading connections with Europe unless we can also resolve these issues.
The cost-of-living dilemma will be with us for years, not just temporarily, if we are unable to export to the world’s main markets and do so successfully with these new sectors and new technology.
Mr. Brown, who was at the center of New Labour under Tony Blair – serving as chancellor for a decade beginning in 1997 before becoming prime minister – was extremely critical of Mr. Johnson’s approach to the cost of living crisis that has caused inflation to reach a four-decade high.
The former prime minister, who led the worldwide response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, stated of the present administration, “There is no plan. They appear to have no idea what to do.
“The prime minister should make a television broadcast detailing what has to be done.
“You cannot go through a winter when people are being asked to take the largest decrease in their standard of life in half a century without asking them to comprehend what you’re trying to achieve and giving them a strategy for what we’re going to do,” the author explains.
Mr. Brown, who as chancellor granted the Bank of England autonomy in determining interest rates in 1997, did not spare the Bank in his evaluation of the current situation.
“The Bank of England’s mission is to help us return to stable prices, which may be 2 percent, 3 percent, or 4 percent.
“However, to get there, they must show us a path – and unless there is a path, people will be pardoned for believing that inflation maybe 11 percent this year, 12 percent next year, and 13 percent the year after that – and the Bank of England has not done that.”
His harshest criticism, however, was reserved for the administration; he echoed charges made by other lawmakers that the government’s approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the World Trade Organization, and the European Convention on Human Rights weakened its international standing.
Mr. Brown stated, “I believe that the United Kingdom must take great care to maintain its international standing as a country that has cherished the rule of law, democracy, freedom, and liberty.”
“If we look to be trampling over treaties we’ve committed to signing, laws we’ve requested other countries to sign, and rules that historically all British administrations have embraced, it will be difficult to convince other countries to listen to our advice.
“I would caution Boris Johnson against disregarding the rule of law more if you will.”
