MPs will vote on Monday on new legislation to give ministers the power to scrap parts of the post-Brexit deal between the UK and the EU.
The government wants to change the NI Protocol to make it easier for some goods to flow from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he believed legislation on the deal could be passed by the end of the year.
The EU opposes the move, saying it breaches international law.
The government is aiming to fast track the protocol bill through the House of Commons before the summer recess in mid July.
It is proposing to condense the committee stage of the legislation across just three days - a process which can sometimes take weeks.
Boris Johnson was asked about the legislation while at a meeting of world leaders in
The protocol is part of the 2019 Brexit deal and keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods, preventing a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.
But it means checks on some items which come into Northern Ireland from other parts of the UK, creating a trade border in the Irish Sea.
Speaking to the BBC, the prime minister said its plan could be carried out "fairly rapidly".
"What we are trying to do is fix something that is very important to our country, which is the balance of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement," Mr Johnson said.
"You have got one tradition, one community, that feels that things really aren't working in a way that they like or understand."
He argued "unnecessary" barriers to trade could be removed without endangering the EU single market.
But the PM said it would be "even better" to agree more flexibility with Brussels.
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the protocol bill was "no fix" and would damage the Good Friday peace deal, rather than protect it.
Ahead of the vote, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the protocol was undermining peace in Northern Ireland.
The government's plans, published earlier in June, faced a fierce backlash from the EU, which launched legal action against the UK government over the legislation.
Mr Šefčovič has also indicated that further measures may follow if the bill proceeds, including a trade war between the UK and EU.
The protocol is opposed by unionists in Northern Ireland who argue it undermines Northern Ireland's place in the UK.
Sinn Féin won the most seats in May's assembly election but the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which came second, is refusing to re-enter a power-sharing executive until its concerns about the protocol are addressed.
Ms Truss said on Sunday night that the protocol was undermining the peace and stability secured in Northern Ireland by the Good Friday Agreement.
Three Northern Ireland parties - Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP, who collectively won the most seats in May's election - say the protocol is necessary to mitigate the effects of Brexit in Northern Ireland.
What is in the Northern Ireland Protocol bill?
The UK government published plans for the bill earlier this month. At the centre of the proposal is the concept of green lanes and red lanes for trade.
This would mean:
- Goods coming from Great Britain (GB) into Northern Ireland (NI) and which are staying would use the green lane. This means there would be no checks and paperwork would be minimal
- GB goods moving through NI into Ireland or the wider European Union would use the red lane and continue to be checked at NI ports
London also wants any trade disputes resolved by "independent arbitration" and not by the European Court of Justice, and for Northern Ireland to benefit from the same tax breaks as elsewhere in the UK.
After a debate on Monday, MPs will then vote on whether the bill can proceed for further consideration.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer confirmed his party will vote against the legislation, adding that they would scrap the proposed laws if it was in power.
The prime minister may also face opposition from his backbenches after he overcame a vote of confidence among Conservative MPs earlier in June.
Proposed legislation to allow the UK to unilaterally rip up Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland at the risk of a trade war with the EU passed the second reading stage in the House of Commons on Monday night.
As expected the Northern Ireland protocol bill passed its first hurdle, with MPs voting 295 to 221 in favour despite heavy criticism from some Conservative backbenchers, including former prime minister Theresa May, who said the move is illegal and unnecessary.
The second reading was the first opportunity MPs have had to vote on the controversial proposals, which the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said were “legal and necessary”.
Boris Johnson predicted earlier on Monday that the laws could go through “fairly rapidly” and be on the statute books by the end of the year.
It is now expected to be fast-tracked through parliament with a condensed committee stage of just three days, instead of the usual two or three weeks.
Opening the debate, Truss said there was “strong legal justification” for it and that the UK remains committed to seeking a negotiated solution.
Is Northern Ireland protocol bill just ‘relatively trivial set of adjustments’?
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The bill was condemned by the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, who said it was illegal and would shred the UK’s international reputation as a law-keeper.
He also told MPs that the bill was the slowest path to resolving the dispute with Brussels and exposed dishonest motives by the Conservative party.
“The government has chosen a route that will take months of parliamentary wrangling to fix,” he said, including on complicated “issues like unequal VAT rates” that no one would consider a matter of “grave peril” to the UK.
“This bill is damaging and counterproductive. The strategy behind it is flawed. The legal justification for it is feeble. The precedent it sets is dangerous, and the timing could hardly be worse. It divides the United Kingdom and the European Union.”
In an excoriating attack May said the bill was unjustified and her colleagues who supported Johnson’s deal “should have listened to the DUP (Democratic Unionist party)” during the debates on it “because they made their position on the protocol very clear at that point and it was not positive”.
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Former international aid minister Andrew Mitchell said it “brazenly breaks a solemn international treaty” and could “trash” the UK’s international reputation, while Simon Hoare, the Conservative chair of the Northern Ireland affairs committee, asked if the bill was “a muscle-flex for a future leadership bid” by Truss.
He also criticised a feature of the bill that would give ministers alone the right to devise new laws replacing those underpinning the Northern Ireland protocol. There were 17 such “Henry VIII” powers giving “unspecified powers” to ministers, Hoare said.“It is not a well-thought-out bill, it’s not a good bill, it’s not a constitutional bill,” he said, adding that it was also “a failure of statecraft” in London and Brussels.
The Guardian view on the Northern Ireland protocol bill: reckless provocation
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Hilary Benn, the former Labour chair of the Brexit select committee, took a sideswipe at the foreign secretary by reminding the House that she campaigned for remain in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.
To cheers from the Conservative side, Truss said she was backing Brexit because she was a “patriot”. This prompted Hoare to criticise her for “impugning” the patriotism of those who opposed the bill.
Benn said the EU also “needed to move” to resolve the situation, but said it was “very frustrating” to hear the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, say repeatedly on radio that the EU had made similar proposals to those made by the Tories in the bill.
“This is a bill born of desperation rather than principle,” he said. “It’s time for the UK, together with the EU, to get back round the table and sort this out.”
Truss told the house that the bill would not disrupt the common travel area, which was working.
The bill would create a “green channel”, free of checks, for goods passing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland that are not destined for the Irish republic; allow products to be sold in Northern Ireland under either EU or UK rules; and give UK ministers more power to alter tax and spending policies in Northern Ireland.
This is similar to the “express lane” proposed by the EU.
- NI Protocol: MPs to vote on plans to ditch parts of Brexit deal BBC
- Boris Johnson news – live: Northern Ireland Protocol override could happen ‘very fast’ The Independent
- Boris Johnson defends Northern Ireland protocol bill ahead of Commons vote The Guardian
- UK presses on with Brexit rules rewrite; EU calls it illegal The Associated Press
- Why the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is both legal and necessary The Times
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