BORIS Johnson has indicated that he won’t back down on the illegal Tory Internal Market Bill – despite Joe Biden’s anger over the prospect of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The legislation suffered a heavy defeat in the House of Lords last night with peers removing controversial clauses that enable ministers to break international laws.

But Tory Environment Secretary George Eustice made clear the government was willing to put them right back in.

He told Sky News: “The UK Internal Market Bill is not about undermining the Belfast Agreement, it’s about standing behind it, making sure that it works and looking after the interests of Northern Ireland, making sure the peace and stability that’s been hard won there can carry on.”

Eustice claimed Biden had not fully understood the legislation. He insisted that disregarding elements of the withdrawal agreement would lead to a hard border and threaten the Northern Ireland peace process.

“This is about providing legal clarity, legal certainty and protecting the internal market in the UK, but crucially, standing behind the Belfast agreement,” he said. “This bill is about protecting the Belfast agreement by making sure that we’ve got economic and social stability in Northern Ireland. It’s about protecting it and not undermining it.”

Biden, who is proud of his Irish heritage, has warned that the Good Friday Agreement cannot “become a casualty of Brexit”.

He said any trade deal between the US and UK would “be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”

The SNP’s shadow foreign secretary Alyn Smith said the move to “double down with the law-breaking Internal Market Bill and extreme low deal or no deal Brexit plans” would leave the UK “adrift, further alienated on the world stage, and put [Johnson] at odds with the incoming Joe Biden administration.”

He added: “At a time when the Westminster Tory Government should be working more closely with our partners in the EU and the US – as well as here at home with the devolved governments – Boris Johnson is severing any attempt to strengthen co-operation and goodwill.

“President-elect Joe Biden – along with other senior democratic figures – have already voiced their clear opposition to the law-breaking Internal Market Bill. Boris Johnson must heed those warnings and step back from the brink.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called on Downing Street to scrap the bill in its entirety.

“We will soon have a president in the Oval Office who has been a passionate advocate for the preservation of the Good Friday Agreement,” Starmer wrote in an article for The Guardian.

“He, like governments across the world, will take a dim view if our Prime Minister ploughs ahead with proposals to undermine that agreement.

“If the Government is serious about a reset in its relationship with the United States, then it should take an early first step and drop these proposals.”

Meanwhile, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was in London yesterday to resume trade talks with Downing Street counterpart Lord Frost.

He tweeted that that he was “happy to be back”.

He listed the three major sticking points – governance, the level playing field and fishing policies.

He said these were the three “keys to unlock a deal”.

Eustice indicated a possible compromise on fisheries.”

We’ve always been open to doing a sensible approach looking particularly at agreements that might span a couple, three years for instance,” he told Sky News.