My Lords, I am very pleased to follow my noble colleague and fellow former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Lord Hain, in support of the amendment. I merely point out that I am the third former Secretary of State from these Benches to have supported the sentiments of the amendment, as my noble friend Lord Murphy also spoke on the matter last week.
I do not intend to address the amendment in such detail as my noble colleague Lord Hain; I will confine my remarks to a focus on three or four strategic issues
of vital importance. We have spent a great deal of time thinking and worrying—correctly—about the implications of Brexit for Scotland and, in my view, not nearly enough time thinking about the implications not only for Northern Ireland but for the whole of Ireland and a relationship which we have built over the past 20 years, in contrast to centuries prior to that of animosity and antagonism.
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I want to make just three or four points which I hope that Ministers will convey to their colleagues, in the spirit of my noble colleague. First, if the whole question of immigration is so central to the Government’s view of Brexit—and, they imply, the public’s view—we ought to be careful to pay sufficient attention to the fact that the border between Europe and the United Kingdom will be across the border between Northern Ireland and southern Ireland. The Government say to us: “But there will not be a hard border. We have no intention of bringing back a hard border”—by which they mean noticing who passes from the south to the north on the island of Ireland. I put it to the Government that their own logic suggests that if they have no way of telling who is moving from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, it is really difficult for them to assure the British people that they somehow have control of immigration. I hope that the Minister will be able to tell us how he squares that particular circle.
That is not just a matter of control over the numbers of immigration, of course—it is also a question of security. If we are to have this dreadfully soft border between Europe, in particular, the Schengen area of Europe—of which, I accept, the Republic of Ireland is not a member—we must almost by definition enhance the security threat compared to the pre-existing position.
Immigration is also of extreme importance to Northern Ireland’s economy and industry. As we know, the Province came through an extremely difficult period of 30 years—actually, in some ways, since 1168, since we first arrived on that island having run out of land on the mainland of England and sailed into the estuary at Wexford and, with 400 soldiers, declared: “It will be all over in a month”. We have had a long history of conflict and war there. In the past 10 to 15 years, Northern Ireland has prospered. It is now completely different from what it was, largely by reason of the development of the economy and the introduction of equality in the Province of Ulster. However, many of those industries are entirely dependent on bringing the best brains of Europe to Northern Ireland—something that did not happen for decades. If we are not very careful, we will be in the position not where the best brains of Europe come to Northern Ireland, but where Northern Ireland companies are moving 50 or 100 miles south of the border, into southern Ireland. That will do untold damage to the economy of Northern Ireland.
The second question is fiscal differences. It is easy to say that we will have a soft border, but if you have vast variation in taxation in the north compared with the south, there will be a very profitable industry in bringing goods into the north and making a lot of money out of them. It may surprise Ministers, but that is how a lot of the terrorism in Northern Ireland was funded. I will not go into detail on that but merely say that,
anecdotally, it was a very good idea to own a couple of fields that straddled the border. Anecdotally, it is said that some of the people who did so parked oil tankers at the bottom of their field at dusk, but by daybreak those tankers had mysteriously moved to the top of the field, thus causing a great deal of surplus because of the taxation differences between the north and the south. That problem—smuggling—will arise again, and as I said, industry is moving south.
Finally, my noble friend referred to the Good Friday agreement. I will also call it the Belfast agreement. As the Minister knows, there are two names for many things in Northern Ireland, and if you use the wrong name you are accused of having a prejudice one way or the other—so there is Derry and Londonderry. The Belfast agreement and the Good Friday agreement have to be encompassed within the same phraseology to prove neutrality. But whatever you call that agreement, it was historic. My worry is that we will create the perception that we are abandoning the rights and liberties that could be guaranteed by recourse to the European Parliament. That, I think, is arguable. I do not believe that that will happen. This is such an entrenched, embedded and historic agreement that those rights will be maintained. Nevertheless, that perception will grow.
More importantly, although it was never articulated in explicit terms, the fact is that the all-Ireland dimension of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement was absolutely essential in ensuring that it brought all sides into it—nationalist, republican, unionist and loyalist. So, while Northern Ireland stood as part of the United Kingdom, the solution to the problem was to encompass the all-Ireland dimension. That all-Ireland dimension was underpinned by our dual membership—both sovereign countries’ membership—of the European Union. Therefore, the divorce of the European Union and the United Kingdom raises a very serious issue for Ministers, not just in the legal niceties but in the underlying atmospherics and the all-Ireland dimension.
My noble friend has made it plain that he does not intend to push this to a vote, and I am glad about that. The amendment is in the spirit in which the Good Friday agreement was conducted—which is all parties, on all sides, in all parts of this island as well as all parts of the island of Ireland, advising each other as we see fit on the best way to avoid big traps and to ensure the prosperity of Northern Ireland and of the Good Friday and Belfast agreement.