Mr. Jonathan Powell:

I have not seen Mr. Brown's comments so I am not sure about them. My view is that a US-UK trade deal is pretty unlikely in the foreseeable future anyway, regardless of Northern Ireland, because the US is not in the business of doing trade deals at present. If it were it would be doing them in the Pacific. Even if it were, the negotiations would be incredibly difficult and long. There is a reason the EU and US have not managed to come to a trade deal despite repeated efforts. I am not holding my breath waiting for a US-UK trade deal but I am certain there will not be one if the UK is in breach of the protocol and international law. Why would a country even start negotiating a trade deal with a government that was not prepared to respect agreements that were designed not so long ago. This is a dead issue in every way. I know the US Government is pressing the British Government on the protocol. I hope it has influence, along with Congress and the EU itself. Here we are all allied on Ukraine but we are trying to undermine it by breaching agreements with our own allies. It is crazy.

With regard to the bill of rights I have a strong memory of lengthy discussions on the subject. Unfortunately I cannot remember at what stage we agreed what on the bill of rights. I hope the speculation about the British Government leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, ECHR, is just speculation. I do not believe it would or could. It would be another very big problem in the context of Northern Ireland if it tried to do so. Any British lawyer will say it is not possible for it to do so. I do not think it actually will. I can see why people would be nervous when we have not fulfilled the commitment on a bill of rights and we are speaking about quitting the ECHR. It makes it a very live political issue. I hope that future British Governments will do better at implementing commitments on this front.