London, June 28 (TIWN) A bill that overrides parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a Brexit trade deal between the UK and the European Union (EU), passed the first hurdle in the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament.

The bill, which contains measures to remove checks on goods moving to Northern Ireland from Great Britain, was passed 295 to 221 late Monday night, reports Xinhua news agency.  It must now go through line-by-line in-depth scrutiny by lawmakers and a further Commons vote and then pass to the House of Lords, the upper house, before becoming a law.  The Protocol is a trade solution agreed by London and Brussels to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.  Under it, Northern Ireland is part of the UK’s customs territory but is subject to the EU’s customs code, value-added tax (VAT) rules and single market rules for goods. However, a de facto Irish Sea border was thus created between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, meaning goods transported to and from Northern Ireland are subject to border controls.  Recently, the need to solve the disputes over the protocol has been made even more urgent after Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party, was in early May declared winner in elections for the devolved assembly in Northern Ireland.  Coming second in the elections, the pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party has said it would not sit in the Assembly, citing its opposition to the protocol.