I want primarily to address new clause 12, which appears in my name and the names of other hon. Members, but I will first make a couple of other points. I agree with the many Members on both sides of the House who have spoken in opposition to the hostile environment. To those who are, in a sense, celebrating the end of freedom of movement, I stress that it has worked both ways. It has also provided opportunities for UK citizens inside the European Union, which we are now walking away from.
I want to make a few detailed comments on new clause 33, of which I am a co-sponsor. The ending of freedom of movement in relation to Northern Ireland brings some potential distortions, above and beyond the challenges facing the UK economy and society overall. Northern Ireland exists in both a UK-wide and all-Ireland context. Under the Ireland/Northern Ireland protocol, we stay in the single market with respect to goods, but the four fundamental freedoms are interconnected. That includes the freedom of movement and the ability to engage services. The protocol makes reference to the wider context of north-south co-operation. That will create some degree of difficulty, particularly for EEA nationals who are engaged in enterprises that operate on both sides of the border in Ireland. We run the risk of seeing industries that depend heavily upon labour from elsewhere in Europe not being competitive any longer and moving out of Northern Ireland, southwards into the Republic of Ireland.
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New clause 12 seeks to ensure the priority of rights, opportunity and treatment for Irish citizens within the United Kingdom. Historically, Irish citizens have relied on the common travel area, which is informed by a number of pieces of legislation, including the British Nationality Act 1948, the Ireland Act 1949 and the Immigration Act 1971. However, it is still largely essentially a convention between the UK and Ireland. In more recent times, common travel area rights have been overlaid by freedom of movement, due to the joint membership of the European Union by the UK and Ireland. We do not know exactly what will happen whenever that is stripped away.
I do not doubt the sincerity of the UK Government in relation to the common travel area. Indeed, this has been part of the Brexit negotiations, and there is a memorandum of understanding between the UK and Ireland. But we have seen some mixed signals around Irish citizens and the EU settlement scheme. We have been told that they do not need to apply but can apply, while Irish citizens from Northern Ireland should not be applying. It is a confusing picture, which at the very least suggests that there is something more tangible in terms of the EU settlement scheme than under the common travel area.
On the surface, clause 2 goes some way to give reassurance to Irish citizens and address some of the anomalies, but the explanatory notes are clear that this will only apply to immigration issues. The EU settlement scheme covers much more, including residence, family reunion, equality of treatment, rights of workers, rights of the self-employed, recognition of qualifications and voting. Only voting is currently explicit within UK law.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has referred to the common travel area as being “written in sand”. There was no public consultation on the memorandum of understanding, so it has not been stress-tested. There may well be concerns whenever we look to the implementation of the citizenship clauses of the Good Friday agreement and how people who are solely Irish will be impacted down the line if that particular area is properly addressed in UK law. Ideally, I would like to see a UK-Ireland treaty to encapsulate the common travel area, but short of that, this new clause would go some way to giving that reassurance and ensuring that things are entirely future-proofed.