Brandon Lewis says EU is ‘not showing flexibility’ over protocol

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

The Northern Ireland Minister said the key to restoring the executive is now out of the Government’s hands. The Northern Ireland protocol has been a sticking point in the negotiations between the UK and the EU.

In 2020, both sides agreed to a protocol where a de facto customs border would be in place in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from Great Britain – to the DUP’s discontent.

The protocol was designed to keep Northern Ireland inside the EU Customs Union and the UK outside of it following Brexit.

While speaking to The Telegraph whether he was concerned that the absence of an executive in Northern Ireland could be indefinite if Brussels fails to give ground, the Northern Ireland Secretary responds plainly: “Yes.”

Mr Lewis added: “I made this point to the EU myself before the elections. My view was, it was much easier to get a deal before the elections than afterwards.

“The idea that it was going to be easier after the elections was a crazy one from the EU.

“When Stormont wasn’t there for three years, the Government had to spend three years trying to negotiate the parties with each other to agree a programme of Government and also with both the Irish and the UK Government.”

Now, amid the stalemate prompted by last month’s Stormont election, Brandon Lewis believes that the EU will be responsible for indefinite chaos in Northern Ireland unless it agrees to renegotiate the Protocol – or the Government pushes ahead with a plan to override the document with domestic legislation.

But now the Unionists (DUP) are threatening not to take part in Government unless the protocol is scrapped or replaced, as they say the Irish Sea border puts Northern Ireland’s place in the UK at risk.

He wrote in the Telegraph: “The DUP are refusing to nominate because they’ve got a mandate through the election, as the largest party in unionism, not to nominate until the Protocol is resolved.

“And at the moment, the Protocol, which the EU claims is about protecting the Good Friday Agreement, is the very document putting the Good Friday Agreement most at risk.”

If the EU fails to renegotiate the document, the UK’s plan to unilaterally override the Protocol will be the only way to restore power-sharing, says Mr Lewis – given that the DUP’s objections are the only hurdle preventing the formation of a new executive.

He said: “Restoring power sharing is about all the parties in Northern Ireland being happy to nominate and Sinn Féin are keen to do that and get on with that.”

DON’T MISS:
Warning as UK facing a ‘significant rise’ in Monkeypox cases
Queen may not receive Trooping the Colour salute for FIRST time
Fury over plans to make former RAF base in tiny village asylum centre

Mr Lewis has become a lightning rod for attacks from ex-soldiers on the Conservative benches becoming increasingly furious at repeated delays to the fulfilment of the Government’s pledge to give veterans of the Troubles “the protections they deserve”.

Source: Read Full Article