economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement", with the acknowledgement that this is "under the caveat that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed". This provision formed part of a UK-EU deal which was rejected by the British parliament on three occasions. May's successor, Boris Johnson, called for the "Irish backstop" to be removed from the proposed withdrawal agreement. The new Northern Ireland Protocol replaced the Irish backstop as part of the deal which Johnson brokered on 17 October 2019. In September 2020, while negotiations with the EU over future trading arrangements continued, the Internal Market Bill was introduced in which the Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis told the House of Commons that the British government planned to break international law in a "specific and limited way", by introducing new powers through notwithstanding clauses that would circumvent certain treaty obligations to the EU as set out in the withdrawal agreement. The Bill was criticised in the UK and internationally, with the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales both describing the Conservative government's proposals as an attempt to seize power and undo devolution. Most parties in Northern Ireland expressed concern at the Bill, though some within the Democratic Unionist Party welcomed it. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that "trust has been eroded". The bill was enacted in December 2020 without the controversial Northern Ireland provisions. Some Brexit supporters have criticised the British government for erecting a trade border "down the Irish Sea"—in other words, between the island of Ireland and Britain. They state that in order to prevent a 'hard border' on the island of Ireland, customs and other controls have instead been imposed on goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland; and that Northern Ireland remains for many purposes in the EU Single Market and Customs Union, subject to a regulatory regime into which it has no input. In March 2021, loyalist groups said they were temporarily withdrawing their support for the agreement. The Loyalist Communities Council said that unionist opposition to the protocol should remain "peaceful and democratic". See also David Trimble Downing Street Declaration John Hume Martin McGuinness Unionism in Ireland Notes References Further reading Gormley-Heenan, Cathy. Political leadership and the Northern Ireland peace process: Role, capacity and effect (Springer, 2006). Mitchell, George J. "Toward Peace in Northern Ireland." Fordham International Law Journal 22 (1998): 1136+. External links Full text of the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland Office