Reg Empey: Sammy Wilson and the DUP share much of blame for the full-scale Irish Sea border which is emerging in Larne and other NI ports

(An article about Mr Wilson’s comments can be read here, November 24)

Sammy was the ‘Mr Brexit’ of the DUP campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

I have no issues with people wanting to leave the EU, but I do have an issue with people being misled and their desire to see the UK as a sovereign independent nation thwarted.

On November 30 2017, Sammy said ‘They (the UK government) have to recognise that if this is about treating Northern Ireland different, or leaving us half in the EU, dragging along regulations which change in Dublin, it’s not on.’ (Guardian newspaper)

The reality today is that not only is Northern Ireland ‘half in the EU’ we are two thirds in the EU.

Does Sammy not realise that the outworking of all his campaigning is that the border has moved from Newry to Larne Harbour in his own constituency?

Under the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol, which Boris Johnson has agreed, NI remains fully in the EU single market and effectively operating the rules of the EU customs union too.

Not only that, but state aid rules will continue to apply in Northern Ireland and not in Great Britain. Every tin of baked beans coming into NI from GB will have to be declared in advance to customs and is subject to inspection!

There will be a major border inspection post erected in his constituency covering 14 acres and the UK government has allocated £355 millions to help business through a trade support scheme!

A full-scale border has been created in the Irish Sea.

This was never in the minds of unionists who voted for Brexit, but the incompetence of the UK government’s negotiating strategy has left Northern Ireland more isolated from Great Britain than ever before.

Sammy Wilson and the DUP must take a lot of the blame for this.

On October 2 2019, Boris Johnson published his proposals for an amended Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (Explanatory Note: UK Proposals for an Amended Protocol).

That document set out proposals ‘that would see checks applying between Great Britain and Northern Ireland (paragraph 4)’, referred to ‘Border Inspection Posts as required by EU law and goods would be subject to identity and documentary checks and physical examination by UK authorities as required by the relevant EU rules (paragraph 7).’

To the horror of many unionists, this document, which was published immediately following the prime minister’s appearance, to cheers at the DUP reception at the Tory Party conference, was endorsed by Sammy Wilson and the DUP!

On October 2, Arlene Foster described it as ‘A serious and sensible way forward’.

What the DUP did that day was

• 1) Accept a regulatory border in the Irish Sea

• 2) Accept the erection of border inspection posts at Northern Ireland ports and

• 3) accept that goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland would need to be notified to the authorities before crossing from England and Scotland!

This is unprecedented endorsement of a separation of one part of the United Kingdom from another. Northern Ireland will be subject to an EU regulatory regime over which we will have no control; border inspection posts will be established at ports between GB and NI and we will still be subject to the writ of the European Court for much of our economic activity.

How could Sammy agree to this?

Let us remember that at the time the DUP endorsed Johnson’s document, they were propping him up in Parliament and they informed us that they wielded great influence at Westminster!

It is also worth remembering that Arlene Foster did that day what she said she and the DUP would never do.

On December 4 2017 on her party’s website, she said ‘Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom. We will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the UK. The economic and constitutional integrity of the UK will not be compromised in any way,’

All of her and the DUP’s promises have been broken. What has Sammy to say about that? How can he justify us being in the EU single market and operating the rules of the EU customs union having pledged to ensure we were treated the same as the rest of the UK?

Sammy Wilson’s claim that Brexit promises will come to fruition is absolute nonsense. The facts and reality tell us that this claim is bogus.

But it goes further. As Parliament has been discussing numerous regulations flowing from the EU Exit legislation, it has emerged that the EU Commission will be able to exercise some executive powers in NI.

In the Grand Committee of the House of Lords on November 10, junior Trade Minister Lord Grimstone said, while introducing a Statutory Instrument ‘The Common Export (EU Exit) Regulations 2020’: ‘I start by drawing the Committee’s attention to the fact that these regulations amend the retained EU regulation only as it applies in respect of Great Britain. This is consistent with the Northern Ireland Protocol, which preserves the ability of the European Commission to exercise these powers in Northern Ireland.’

When the prime minister finalised his deal with Brussels in the Withdrawal Agreement of October 17 2019, the DUP had realised by then the mistake they had made by agreeing to his proposal of October 2. But the damage was done. All the key measures that were in the Explanatory Note of October 2 are in the final deal on October 17.

The floodgates had been opened and Johnson was able to go to Dublin and Brussels and say that he had unionist consent for his proposals. Thus, Northern Ireland is separated economically from the rest of the UK.

Mr Wilson and his colleagues made a huge strategic error in 2019 and he doesn’t even seem to get it, or he and his colleagues are trying to cover up their mistakes.

But facts are facts. There is a border where there never was one before; NI is not being treated like the rest of the UK and a foreign power, which is what the EU will become on January 1 2021, will exercise considerable powers over our way of life, while we have no representation or say over the regulations that they will create.

So, Sammy, is that what you intended to come to fruition with your Brexit proposals?

The truth is that you and you colleagues didn’t think things through, and even when you had a say over the Westminster government in 2019, you supported Boris’s regulatory Irish Sea border over the constitutional integrity of the UK.

By any objective measure, the future of the Union is not safe in your or your party’s hands.

• Lord Empey is a former Ulster Unionist Party leader

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