Protocol latest: Comments from haulage boss 'are a welcome tonic to the Windsor Whitewash pushed by the government'
Jim Allister has hailed remarks by a haulage firm boss, setting out the problems the Windsor Framework will pose for freight firms, as a welcome tonic to the government’s “whitewashing” of the deal.
The TUV leader and staunch anti-Protocol advocate was reacting to a letter in this newspaper from Peter Summerton, managing director of the haulage firm McCulla.
Mr Summerton had said: “Through the course of the month, the UK government has continued to insist is that it has removed any sense of a border in the Irish Sea, but has provided scant evidence to substantiate this.
"However, Brussels has again provided much more clarity with head of the European Commission's animal health and food safety division stating that border control posts must be enhanced at four Northern Irish ports as a provision to enabling the Windsor Framework to even start in October 2023.”
Unionists have for weeks been accusing Rishi Sunak of over-hyping his re-negotiated Protocol deal with the EU.
Mr Summerton’s remarks come on the heels of earlier comments to the News Letter by Paul Jackson of Palyn, a transport management consultancy firm, who said the Windsor deal will spell “friction” at the sea border and push up costs.
Mr Allister said: “Peter Summerton’s comments in yesterday’s News Letter provide a welcome dose of reality to the spin which has characterised the Windsor Whitewash.
"Permanent facilities are being built to enhance the Sea Border, all industries other than retail will be required to use the red lane and even in the misnamed ‘green lane’ goods will be subject to burdensome paperwork and checks by the EU.”
One of the things Mr Summerton had complained of was a BBC graphic which said that “goods destined for Northern Ireland [will] go into the green lane meaning they wouldn't have to be checked and would require minimal paperwork”.
This is not so, said Mr Summerton; the reality is that even green lane vehicles will be subject to checks.
Mr Allister added: “The practical difficulties highlighted by the haulage industry underscore the reality that the fundamentals of the Protocol have not changed.
"Northern Ireland remains in a foreign single market and customs union as far as the rest of our nation is concerned.
"Not only does this have profound constitutional ramifications, it has a very real practical impact on businesses engaging in trade across the UK.”