Ben Habib: ​The DUP should have cited the pressure it faced to return to Stormont, instead of hailing the deal

​If there is a red lane required for the movement of some goods, there must be a way to distinguish goods which should not be in it. Therein lies the revelation of customs controls and two different regulatory regimes. It is Orwellian to argue otherwise.

Nevertheless, the DUP is arguing just that. They say their deal has done away with the border.

The pressure on the DUP to restore Stormont was vast.

It was threatened by the government with, amongst other things, the removal of its legitimate ability to prevent Stormont from being restored; Dublin having a greater say in the affairs of Northern Ireland; and the withholding of cash. No doubt its own MLAs were also hungry for a full salary – remember Chris Heaton-Harris had reduced these by a third for as long as Stormont was not sitting.

From my perspective, the tragedy is not so much that Stormont was restored, as bad as that is. The tragedy is the DUP, hitherto the political guardian of unionism, joined the government in its relentless stream of what I consider to be misleading claims about the Windsor Protocol/ Framework. There was no need to do so and no benefit derived.

Had the DUP played a straight bat, accurately describing the threats to which it had been subjected, people would have understood. They may have disagreed with Stormont’s restoration but they would have understood. By joining in what I believe are obvious distortions, the DUP has lost its moral authority.

And what did Northern Ireland get in return for the DUP going back into Stormont?

At the very least it should have insisted Northern Ireland benefit from major regulatory and fiscal changes to undo some of the constitutionally damaging effects of the Irish Sea border.

Economically, the problem with the border is that it creates friction in traded goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This friction causes a diversion of trade away from Great Britain to Ireland. It is this diversion of trade that will, over time, result in Northern Ireland being economically captured by Ireland.

So the DUP should have demanded mitigants against the diversion. I have, in this newspaper, cited many such mitigants in the past but here a few again:

First and foremost it should have demanded a reduction in corporation tax. The tax rate in Northern Ireland is double that of Ireland. This has already wrought massive damage to the economy in NI. Business is bound to choose Dublin over Belfast when deciding where to set up stall. Why pay 25% in tax when you can pay 12.5%?

If, as is NI’s legislative right, the DUP had demanded and received a cut in the corporation tax rate, businesses from GB, especially those in financial services, would have flooded into Belfast. My own business would have relocated there overnight. This would have yielded two massive wins. The economy in NI would have received an instant boost. And there would have been an influx of British citizens from GB. The Union would have been strengthened and with it the prosperity of Northern Ireland.

The Irish Sea border largely affects the traded goods sector. Financial services from GB relocating to NI would have been a brilliant antidote to the damage done by the Windsor Framework.

So, in addition to the reduction in the rate corporation tax, the DUP should have demanded a reduction in regulations for financial services firms based in Belfast – reduced capital adequacy requirements for banks, insurance companies and pension funds, amongst others, for example. It does not require a visionary to be able to see that reduced taxation coupled with reduced regulations would have been a magnet for such businesses – from GB and also from Ireland.

And in order to underpin the success of all of the above, the DUP should have demanded a relaxation in planning regulations for the development of the office blocks, housing, schools and roads these new businesses would inevitably have needed.

There should have been no restoration of Stormont until at least the above had been secured.

I could go on with other examples but I am sure you get the picture.

Instead of a new economic model to strengthen the Union and boost the prosperity of Northern Ireland, the DUP did what leaders in Northern Ireland have previously done – temporarily fill their begging bowl with a handout of cash.

They did nothing to neuter the fundamentals of the Irish Sea border, nothing of significance to strengthen the Union, nothing of note for the long term benefit and prosperity of Northern Ireland. They embedded the culture of dependency on Westminster and the notion in England that the Northern Irish are just a bunch of whingers without a plan, living off English generosity.

My biggest gripe with the DUP is not the restoration of Stormont; it is their joining in the spin of this Tory government and achieving far too little of real and lasting benefit for the Union and people in Northern Ireland.

I believe that the DUP has lost its moral authority.

Leadership is urgently needed if the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is to be secured.

• Ben Habib is a former Brexit Party MEP and now deputy leader of Reform UK. He is a property businessman