I assert to the noble Lord, Lord Bew, that this is referred to in our first objective:
“The Irish Sea border must go”.
This Government pledged to protect and strengthen the UK internal market as part of New Decade, New Approach. We said that this will involve the European Union.
Regrettably, the Stormont brake, if successfully applied, would apply only to future changes to EU law. It provides no right to change any part of the existing EU laws imposed on Northern Ireland under the protocol. The brake allows for an objection to be raised to a new or amended EU law but, ultimately, the final say on its application would not be a matter for the Assembly, Executive or even this sovereign Parliament. The final decision would rest with an international body that can decide whether a new EU law applies.
The brake is also of limited application in theory and is likely to be unworkable in practice, as such a high bar is set. As I have said previously in your Lordships’ House, I cannot envisage a scenario in which a future British Government would seek to apply a brake if it meant a retaliatory action from the EU. Northern Ireland remains governed by many EU laws that we did not make and cannot legally change. There remains no consent for arrangements that will see further EU regulations causing Northern Ireland to diverge from the rest of the United Kingdom.
The rights of the people of Northern Ireland under the Act of Union 1800 have not been fully restored. While I welcome some government promises—indeed, I welcome any future legislation that will bring us closer together as a nation—there is some way to go before we can say that these issues have been adequately addressed. These arrangements, much like the heralded launch of the Windsor Framework last year, have ultimately failed a key test: to legally restore the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom.
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Finally, I would like to make it quite clear that our party, the Democratic Unionist Party, is not against the Assembly. We have been pro-devolution when many other unionist parties were vehemently integrationist —they did not want any Assembly. However, the point I am trying to make is that the Assembly must be sustained on the basis on which it was set up. That is on a cross-community basis, with the balance of the various strands of the agreements respected. That is not the case with the protocol, or the Windsor Framework document that is in force.