Member

That is why, in new clause 3, I have provided the Government with the opportunity to amend section 7A so as to exempt the tobacco directive’s application in Northern Ireland. I say to the Government that although they have not accepted this new clause, there is still time to do so in the other place, and that there is no point in simply repeating an assurance, as on Second Reading, that they are confident that the legislation will apply. The same Government lawyers advised the previous Government that the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 and the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 would apply in Northern Ireland. When those pieces of legislation hit the buffers in the High Court, it was because Northern Ireland, on those two issues, was subject to the superiority of EU law, under which the court ruled.