Ben Lowry: Tories criticise Boris Johnson’s bill to prevent worst EU interpretation of Irish Sea border but didn’t speak up for UK last year

Dozens of Tories at Westminster, such as the party’s former leader Michael Howard, are concerned that London behave with honour to an EU that is playing hardball over Northern Ireland.

They want Boris Johnson to drop his bill to protect the UK internal market. Yet I recall no fuss from them over Mr Johnson’s Brexit deal last year, that caused the problem.

Perhaps they did not notice that it put a trade border in the Irish Sea, cutting a part of the UK from its internal market in a way that no other nation state would contemplate. Perhaps they did not care.

When Mr Johnson betrayed the DUP, with a chutzpah that would be almost admirable if not so dreadful, days after he was treated as a hero at the DUP event at the Conservative conference in Manchester, I thought some Tory MPs would stand by Northern Ireland.

After Mr Johnson’s sudden deal with Leo Varadkar, I was talking to a relative who said, as the vote on the deal approached, not a Tory is going to oppose it in support of unionism.

Oh no, they will I said. A dozen or two. It might only be single figures but a few have made clear they will. But my relative was right. Not one.

When I have made this point before, some people with Tory contacts have – reasonably – pointed out that Mr Johnson had suffered near treachery when MPs backed the Benn amendment, which ruled out a ‘no deal’ Brexit and let the EU know it need not compromise.

The prime minister was then faced with losing his job and Brexit.

But you would still expect maintaining unfettered trade within the UK to be such a matter of unshakeable conviction to, say, 10% of Tory MPs (a few dozen) that they would have said: we will risk a pre Brexit election rather than sacrifice NI.

At the October EU summit, after his u-turn on an Irish Sea border, Boris Johnson showed no unease at having jettisoned NI, judging by his beaming expression. Now, for all the rubbish he has talked about there being no barrier, the disaster is becoming clear.

This week Belfast International Airport expressed dismay that passengers flying from Great Britain to the EU will get duty free sales but passengers from Aldergrove to EU will not. Northern Ireland is now effectively in the EU in such matters.

The Westminster reaction to all this has been lamentable. Across the political spectrum, no matter what the EU does, a host of grandees will emerge to endorse Ireland’s position if ever they think Dublin is upset about something.

Unlike Michael Howard, Tony Blair and John Major can say that they opposed Brexit and warned about such problems. But other Remain voices have accepted the result and then wanted the UK to stand firm against Brussels in talks.

It is extraordinary that credible reports have emerged of the EU threatening in some circumstances to ban food products going GB to NI.

The EU denies it did that. But if we were not such a self critical nation then the fact that the prime minister insists they did would have meant swift vigilance towards, and solidarity against, the EU. Even opponents of Brexit would demand inquiries into whether such an outrageous ban is possible and what the UK can do to stop it.

Blair and Major rush to defend the peace process, but were quiet when Sinn Fein collapsed Stormont, and then Irish ministers lobbied for nationalists (ie Simon Coveney telling unionists they must accept an Irish language act).

They said nothing bout Ireland humiliating the UK in the Council of Europe on legacy matters (demanding funding for legacy cases that republican terrorists hold dear).

I have not hear either former premier speak about the fact that six soldiers face murder trials for single shootings but no IRA leader a trial for decades of mass murder (or bombing an elected government).

Yet never does anyone of note in London criticise a Dublin that freely criticises the UK (or condescends over its politics problems).

And you can always at a time of cross-border tensions rely on Tories such as Julian Smith, David Lidington and Simon Hoare to gush about warm London-Dublin relations. They never wonder if Ireland maybe is not such a friend.

You never even get a hint from Westminster that if Ireland, for example, breaks the Common Travel Area to quarantine arrivals from Great Britain, despite similar Covid infection rates, it might be an idea to slap a quarantine in reverse.

Or that if US leaders in the Democratic Party are going to parrot an Irish slant on an Anglo Irish Agreement which, above all, cemented our place in the UK (until NI decides otherwise), then the UK should launch a diplomatic offensive in the US. Remind powerbrokers in the still mostly pro anglo Republican Party of how much closer London is to Washington than Dublin on affairs such as Nato or China.

Boris Johnson’s retreat from disaster on the Union seems to amount to little more than preventing export declaration forms, and may not even achieve that.

The hysterical reaction is a reminder that the British establishment trembles if Ireland is upset about something.

• Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

• Ben Lowry: The News Letter is 283 years old and might go 283 years further

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers — and consequently the revenue we receive — we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor