Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris: I can understand Windsor Framework sceptics but deal will deliver on promises

​Mr Heaton-Harris addressed the media today at Hillmount Garden Centre, one of businesses in the Province he visited to promote the framework.

He was asked by the News Letter if he was aware of the concerns raised by hauliers, such as Peter Summerton the managing director of McCulla Ireland, about the paperwork burden for goods coming from GB to NI even under the new deal.

The Northern Ireland secretary said he was aware of "only a few" hauliers who think there is still a burden “which is why we've got to explain it because there are other hauliers who have said actually this nearly goes back to pre-Brexit levels of administration”.

"I think that's where it will trend to,” he added.

“We're talking to businesses, we're talking to politicians, we're talking to anybody to try to explain as best we can what the processes will be. It's one of the reasons why we have published everything and we’re publishing everything as quickly as we can – we're giving people time to prepare, time and space to look at it.

"I think people are sceptical and I can quite understand why – politicians stand up and say one thing, but it's not delivered. I'm quite sure they'll find that what the prime minister has described and what I've described is what it is.”

Mr Heaton-Harris suggested that MPs are set to vote on the Brexit deal on trading arrangements for NI by the end of the month.

He told reporters: “There’s some European processes that also are happening. So, the European Parliament have its say on this, I believe, next week, and then I think there’s one more stage in the European political sphere for it to go through, so that’ll be in the next two or three weeks.

“We will be having a vote in Parliament on a similar timetable.”

He said further detail will be provided in the coming weeks on how the Stormont brake aspect of the Windsor Framework will work.

Mr Heaton-Harris said: “What I think we’re going to do is actually publish a statutory instrument in the next couple of weeks that will demonstrate what we say it’s going to do, it will do.

“So, the mechanism by which it can be triggered, and when it is triggered, what that means for the Government.

“What we think it means, and what is shown in legislation, is that when the brake is pulled – because a piece of EU law, that may be amending something, a new piece of legislation that would affect the 3% of EU law that remains applicable in Northern Ireland – well, if it’s pulled, then it is disapplied immediately on the brake being pulled.

“It goes to the joint committee where the UK Government will be bound to veto based on the conditions that you’ve seen in the papers we’ve published, but we’re trying to make sure that people can see it in black and white, so they understand exactly what it is.”

The Secretary of State said he was “hopeful” that the DUP panel set up to deliberate on the Windsor Framework would see that it could “alleviate a huge amount of issues”.

“I’m hopeful that the panel will see what we’ve done for what it is, which is alleviate a huge amount of the issues that were being caused by the protocol,” he told reporters.

“We are giving people – you’ve heard the Prime Minister say only last week – we are giving people plenty of time and space to look at these.

“We’re not bouncing people into anything at all. We want people to examine what we’ve put forward so people know exactly what they’re getting.

“On the brake, that’s why we’re going to publish the piece of secondary legislation required to set it up, because we want people to know that it does what I’ve just described.”

Explaining his visit to Hillmount Garden Centre Mr Heaton-Harris said it was a business that’s been directly affected by the way the protocol.

He said: “Politics had gotten in the way of its running in some parts.

“So, just talking through what that has felt like for a decent-sized family business over the last couple of years, and hopefully giving some assurance that in the not too distant future things should be trending back to a type of normal that is going to be much better for them.”