Fresh warnings to the DUP over the impact of the Irish Sea border, including from man who helped deliver Brexit

There has been mounting speculation that an agreement is near and Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is preparing to lead his party back to the assembly. But when the News Letter tried last night to phone senior DUP members after yesterday’s meeting of its top party officers, they were saying nothing or not answering.

The party is under fresh pressure from other unionists who feel that it should be wary of the Windsor Framework, in which the UK government and the EU agreed easements to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which created a trade barrier between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Writing in today’s News Letter (scroll down for a link to the article), Lord Frost – the ex minister who with Boris Johnson oversaw Britain’s departure from the EU – outlines why he thinks the framework is deeply flawed, but says that it has not yet become “enshrined for good” because Stormont is down.

Emphasising that he is not telling the DUP what to do, he says the party “must reach its own assessment of the situation and make up its own mind about next steps. But it should do so with open eyes”.

And in a letter to the News Letter (scroll down for a link to the letter), Baroness (Kate) Hoey, Jim Allister, Jamie Bryson, and Ben Habib say: “We stand where Sir Jeffrey stood, and where we hope he still stands, when he emphatically said the Protocol must go, EU law must go and the Irish Sea border must go.”

Lord Frost, formerly David Frost, has penned a response to an article from Roderick Crawford, of the influential Westminster think-tank Policy Exchange, who on Thursday disputed the notion that EU law is dominant in Northern Ireland.

Mr Crawford, whose essay is still on our website (click here to read it ‘The reality is that UK law - not EU law - remains dominant in Northern Ireland’), wrote yesterday: “It largely applies to goods — their movement into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, but not from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, and their production in Northern Ireland.

“EU law is related to the economy, not society (with the tiniest of exceptions). It applies to goods, but not services, and so applies to about 18% of Northern Ireland’s economy; the rest of the economy is services and construction.

“Of the 18% where EU law largely applies, 71% is manufacturing, yet for this sector EU law does not apply to labour, property, company law, accountancy standards, finance, currency, or tax (VAT limits apart).”

Mr Crawford, a Policy Exchange Senior Research Fellow who wrote ‘The Northern Ireland Protocol: the Origins of the Current Crisis’ (Policy Exchange, 2021) ), and ‘The Northern Ireland Protocol: The Clash of Two Treaties’ (Policy Exchange, 2023), also said: “There is a veto vote on the whole body of EU law next year, and an independent review if it is continued. Mechanisms for managing regulatory divergence are in place.”

But Lord Frost writes in the News Letter today (Click here to read it: ‘Under the Windsor Framework, the UK can't stop the inevitable divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland’): “That 18% of the economy includes the Irish Sea customs barriers, all the industry, and every actual product. State aid restrictions on tax and VAT rules go wider still.

In the joint letter, Baroness Hoey and the others say (Click here to read it: ‘We hope that the DUP leader still stands with us against EU law and the Irish Sea border’): “As those who shared platforms with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in opposing the Protocol, we remain firmly of the view that the Protocol is wholly incompatible with Northern Ireland as an integral part of the UK.”