Benn: Northern Ireland economy not being crippled by post-Brexit arrangements

Hilary Benn has rejected suggestions that Northern Ireland’s economy is being “crippled” by post-Brexit trading arrangements, amid unionist warnings over an “all-Ireland economy”.

The Northern Ireland Secretary acknowledged the Windsor Framework is “not perfect” but argued the UK and European Union have shown they can work through issues in a “constructive and pragmatic way”.

He added most goods are “flowing relatively smoothly” between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as he responded to numerous concerns raised by unionist MPs during a House of Commons debate.

The Windsor Framework, and its predecessor the Northern Ireland Protocol, require checks and customs paperwork on goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.

Under the arrangements, which were designed to ensure no hardening of the Irish land border post-Brexit, Northern Ireland continues to follow many EU trade and customs rules.

TUV leader Jim Allister, leading an adjournment debate on trade diversion and Windsor Framework Article 16, told the Commons: “The whole purpose of the protocol was and is to build an all-Ireland economy, to dismantle the economic links from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, to enhance the links with the Irish Republic, and thereby to create stepping stones out of the United Kingdom into an all-Ireland for Northern Ireland.

“That was the determination that lay behind this protocol, because we don’t need a protocol to govern trade.”

Mr Allister (North Antrim) also claimed that many companies have stopped trading with Northern Ireland since the protocol was put in place.

He added: “Why? Because of the bureaucracy, because you have to make statutory customs declarations, because you have to have them checked, because you have to employ extra staff to do all of that.

“And many, particularly of the smaller sectors, companies have simply said, not going to do it.”

Ulster Unionist Party MP Robin Swann said a business in his South Antrim constituency had told him that “bureaucracy wise, administration wise, it’s actually easier for a supplier in Scotland to supply into Japan than it is across the 14-mile stretch of water into Northern Ireland”.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) said: “The additional paperwork which is involved all adds to costs, makes the economy less competitive, and therefore makes it more difficult for the Northern Ireland economy to be viable.”

Responding for the UK Government, Mr Benn said: “We needed to have a system in place for managing a unique set of circumstances and the system that we have is the inevitable result of leaving the European Union – that’s where this all began, if it hadn’t happened we wouldn’t be meeting and having this discussion this evening.

“What did that result in?

“Two trading entities, the United Kingdom and the European Union, with different rules but an open border between them.

“Now, you won’t find anywhere else in the world where that is the case.”

Mr Benn also said: “I will be the first to acknowledge from this despatch box that the Windsor Framework is not perfect, all of us know this, and where problems arise with the practical operation of the framework, what this Government and the EU have tried to show is that we can work through them in a constructive and pragmatic way because that’s what we have to do.”

The Cabinet minister went on to say: “Given that most goods are flowing relatively smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, how it can be argued that we’re facing those difficulties?

“I would just make the point if one goes to the port, the lorries come off and most of them go on their way, the goods are moving and that is contrast to the argument that (Mr Allister) put towards the end of his speech where I think he used the phrase ‘cripple the Northern Ireland economy’.

“I say to him I haven’t seen any evidence that the Northern Ireland economy, which by the way has the lowest unemployment in the whole of the United Kingdom, is being crippled by the matters we’re discussing this evening.”