Amal Clooney has quit her role as the UK’s envoy on press freedom “in dismay” at the government’s willingness to break international law over Brexit. The human rights lawyer said it was “lamentable” for Boris Johnson to be contemplating overriding the Brexit agreement he signed last year.

She could not tell others to honour legal obligations when the UK “declares it does not intend to do so itself”. The PM says he does not want to use the powers in the Internal Markets Bill. But he says the legislation is necessary to give the government the power to protect the UK and, particularly Northern Ireland, if trade talks fail and the EU acts “unreasonably”. In her resignation letter, Ms Clooney, who is married to Hollywood actor George Clooney, said she had accepted the job last year because of the UK’s historic role in upholding the international legal order.(NU)…[+]