Boris Johnson insists he wants to ‘fix’ and not ‘scrap’ post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland

1.7k

View
comments

Boris Johnson tonight insisted he does not want to ‘scrap’ post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland but said new legislation to set aside parts of an EU agreement was needed as ‘insurance’.

After holding talks with all five of Northern Ireland’s main parties in Belfast, the Prime Minister appeared to back away from an immediate threat to tear up the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Mr Johnson said the Protocol could be ‘fixed’ and claimed none of the main Stormont parties he spoke to had been supportive of the current implementation of the post-Brexit trade rules.

The PM added he would ‘love’ reform of the Protocol to be done in a ‘consensual way’ with the EU, but also confirmed plans for a ‘legislative solution’ should the UK fail to strike a deal with Brussels.

His trip to Belfast followed feverish briefing in recent days that British ministers are poised to launch unilateral action over the Protocol – by introducing new laws at Westminster – and walk away from negotiations with the EU.

It was accompanied by warnings that such a move could lead to a bitter trade war with the EU and a fresh bout of post-Brexit turmoil.

But Mr Johnson tonight left open the possibility of a deal still being struck with the EU following his talks with Northern Ireland politicians.

He said that all five of Stormont’s main parties had problems with the Protocol.

‘None of the parties – I spoke to all five parties just now – not one of them likes the way it’s operating, they all think it can be reformed and improved – from Sinn Fein to SDLP, DUP, all of them,’ the PM said.

‘The question is how do you do that? We would love this to be done in a consensual way with our friends and partners, ironing out the problems, stopping some of these barriers east-west.

‘But to get that done, to have the insurance, we need to proceed with a legislative solution as well.’

Mr Johnson also insisted the UK Government does not want to ‘scrap’ the Protocol.

He added: ‘We think it can be fixed. And actually five of the five parties I talked to today also think it needs reform.”

The PM said he was focussed on ‘sticking up’ for the Good Friday Agreement and ‘trying to protect and preserve the government of Northern Ireland’.

Mr Johnson hit out at the ‘extra barriers to trade, extra burdens on business that are being caused by the Protocol’ amid the cost-of-living crisis.

The Protocol was designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit and imposed checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The EU’s ‘dogmatic’ and ‘rigid’ implementation of the Protocol has been blamed by British ministers for causing significant trade disruption.

The DUP and other unionists are also concerned the agreement has been detrimental to Northern Ireland’s status within the UK.

The PM’s trip to Belfast came amid a fresh political crisis at Stormont that has seen the DUP refuse to re-enter a power-sharing administration until action is taken on the Protocol.

The party have also blocked the Northern Ireland Assembly from functioning following historic elections at the beginning of the month, which saw the DUP replaced as Stormont’s largest party by Sinn Fein.

The DUP’s actions – including their refusal to nominate a Speaker – have been heavily criticised by other Stormont parties. 

Mr Johnson stressed that ‘everybody should be rolling up their sleeves’ in efforts to revive an Executive and Assembly in Northern Ireland.

‘The province has got so much going for it but you need leadership and you need government,’ he said.

‘So you bet I said to the DUP in particular “we want to see you back in the Executive, we want to see you nominating, we want to see a Speaker in the Assembly”, of course.’

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tonight spoke to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Following the call, Ms Truss said: ‘I reiterated the UK’s commitment to protecting the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, and the importance of getting the NI Executive up and running.’

There have been fresh angst in Washington at UK moves to take unilateral action on the Protocol, with renewed warnings it could put at risk a UK-US trade deal. 

Earlier, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson demanded everyone ‘grow-up’ after his meeting with Mr Johnson in the wake of Sinn Fein’s victory in Stormont elections.

Speaking after their talks at Hillsborough castle today, Sir Jeffrey said: ‘The Prime Minister has a duty to resolve this issue. We need to see decisive action taken by the Government.’

He added that he expected Mr Johnson’s Government to ‘make their position clear’ on the Protocol later this week.

When asked whether the tabling of legislation on the Protocol was enough to restore the Executive, or whether legislation needed to be passed, Sir Jeffrey said: ‘The tabling of legislation is words. What I need is decisive action.’ 

But Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald accused the PM of prioritising ‘placating the DUP’.

The PM arrived in Belfast to protests from both unionists and nationalists amid growing political turmoil.

‘We’ve had what we would describe as a fairly tough meeting with the Prime Minister,’ she said.

‘We have put it to him very directly that the absolute priority is getting government working here in the north.

‘People are facing incredible difficulties in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, and it’s simply not acceptable, it’s not good enough for anybody, the DUP or the British Government, to hold society here to ransom.’

The DUP has refused to nominate a Deputy First Minister to serve alongside Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill, meaning that under Good Friday Agreement rules the Stormont executive cannot function.

The unionists have warned that actions rather than words are required on the protocol to break the deadlock.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said: ‘I want to see what the Government propose to do and I’ll judge it against what we have outlined is necessary to restore unionist confidence.’

But he appeared to take a slightly more emollient stance, suggesting the DUP might accept a solution short of completely scrapping the protocol.

‘We’re in a negotiating process and people start from different points, but in the end it is the outcome that matters, that’s what I’m focused on getting, and as soon as we get a solution that removes that Irish Sea border,’ he told LBC.

‘The Prime Minister committed to resolving that issue, his Government committed in New Decade New Approach to protecting Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market. Now, that is what the Prime Minister must do.’

Mr Johnson is due to discuss the Protocol with the leaders of the five main Stormont parties as he seeks changes to the agreement. 

Writing in the Belfast Telegraph today, Mr Johnson said: ‘We have been told by the EU that it is impossible to make the changes to the Protocol text to actually solve these problems in negotiations – because there is no mandate to do so. 

‘We will keep the door open to genuine dialogue, and continue to protect the single market – as it has been throughout the existence of the Protocol – and the open border with the Republic of Ireland, which will always be of paramount importance. There is without question a sensible landing spot in which everyone’s interests are protected.

‘Our shared objective must be to create the broadest cross-community support for a reformed Protocol in 2024. I hope the EU’s position changes. If it does not, there will be a necessity to act. 

‘The Government has a responsibility to provide assurance that consumers, citizens and businesses of Northern Ireland are protected in the long term.’

Downing Street said there was a ‘sensible landing’ for negotiations with the EU.

The PM’s official spokesman said: ‘We have always sought to deal with this issue in a calm manner.

‘That’s always been the approach we’ve taken when having negotiations with the EU or individual countries.

‘That’s a view shared by both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary.

‘We believe there is a sensible landing, as the Prime Minister said over the weekend, in which everyone’s interests are protected and we will keep that in mind as we set out next steps.’

Asked whether Brussels needed to ‘change its mandate’, the Downing Street official said: ‘What we are clear about is the mandate given to (European Commission vice-president) Maros Sefcovic does not allow him to make the changes that we think are wholly necessary to protect peace and democracy in Northern Ireland.’

A source close to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told MailOnline she is not trying to ‘pick a fight’ with the EU.

‘Liz’s priority in all of this is upholding the Belfast Good Friday Agreement and restoring power-sharing arrangements in Northern Ireland,’ they said. 

‘This is about doing right by the people of Northern Ireland, not picking a fight with the EU.’ 

The Government has drawn up legislation that would unilaterally suspend all border checks on goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland to end the stalemate.

The Attorney General has received advice that the Good Friday Agreement trumps the Protocol legally. 

‘We would argue that it clearly trumps it politically and morally too,’ a source added.

However, the government is only expected to confirm plans for legislation tomorrow, with the text not anticipated until at least next week. It could take months to go through Parliament.

Mr Coveney told reporters in Brussels: ‘This is a time for calmness, it’s a time for dialogue, it’s a time for compromise and partnership between the EU and the UK to solve these outstanding issues.

‘If that is the approach taken by the British Government then we can make significant progress and we can make progress quickly to respond to the concerns of both the business community and the unionist community in Northern Ireland.

‘That alternative is unilateral action which means tension, rancour, stand-offs, legal challenges and of course calls into question the functioning of the TCA itself, because the TCA and the Withdrawal Agreement are interlinked, they rely on each other.

‘That is the last thing Europe needs right now, when we are working so well together in the face of Russian aggression and responding to the support needed for Ukraine at this time.’

Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns, a close ally of Mr Johnson, was sent to the US recently to make the UK’s case to Joe Biden’s administration. 

But he returned with a cautious message, telling the Times: ‘The administration and those on the Hill who take a close interest in this want this to be resolved without any theatre around it. That’s our wish too.’

Mr Johnson’s priority us understood to be ‘restoring the democratic institutions’ in Northern Ireland, not to ‘pick a fight with the EU’.