Sammy Wilson: Business organisations should stop being so cowardly about the Windsor Framework and complain about it

These agreements have been negotiated by successive spineless and supine prime ministers.

Morgan McLernon are a part of a major United Kingdom haulage consortium. If they are overwhelmed by the restrictions of the Windsor Framework and the decisions by retailers to look for supplies in the Irish Republic instead of Great Britain then how can we expect smaller companies to overcome the massive bureaucracy and economic redistribution which result from the Windsor Framework.

What is surprising is the silence of business organisations in Northern Ireland which despite the implications for their members have meekly accepted the assurances given by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the secretary of state, Chris Heaton-Harris, without questioning the contradictions between the EU and the UK versions of the Windsor Framework.

All the signs are there. Difficulties in getting information about arrangements from government departments, the government rushing through regulations without proper scrutiny and decisions by major retailers to seek supplies for NI stores from EU countries instead of GB.

The silence of business organisations is bad enough what is even worse is the collusion of political parties in NI who seem to put their loyalty to the EU and reluctance to criticise the EU's abuse of NI before the interests of their voters.

Let there be no doubt about it we will all suffer after October 1 as a result of the actions of Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, all whom let the EU trample over them and split up the UK.

Consumers will pay higher prices because of higher transport and bureaucracy costs in bringing goods into NI.

Retailers buying their supplies from the Republic of Ireland (RoI) will have to charge more. The evidence is there. Why do consumers in the RoI flock to Newry, Strabane and Londonderry to do their shopping? It is because goods brought into NI stores from GB are cheaper and different quality from those produced in their own country yet that is where we will be getting more of our supplies from in future thanks to the Windsor Framework.

Companies who can't show that the goods they are bringing in are going to a final destination in NI either because they are going to a depot for future distribution or are going to be processed in some way, will face the full rigours of EU bureaucracy as will goods not separately labelled for consumption in NI only.

There is even doubt about the ability of the capacity of the red lanes through which these goods will have to go which could lead to long delays or decisions simply not to bring the goods to NI in the first place.

Of course the response from those who have kept their mouths shut and their heads down rather than warn, complain, and demand the government deals with these issues, is that this is all scaremongering.

They said the same when the Northern Ireland Protocol was negotiated. Indeed the same coalition of anti British, pro EU and couldn't care less about our constituents in the Alliance Party, SDLP and Sinn Fein claimed that the problem was that the protocol wasn't being implemented enough.

It was left to my party to fight the battle to get the government to face the reality that the NI Protocol was constitutionally and economically damaging. Unfortunately the replacement has not been much better because it was based on the same premise as the NI Protocol namely that EU demands took precedence.

What then is the solution? The first thing is for those affected by the Windsor Framework to complain loudly.

Business organisations must find their voice and stop being so cowardly and afraid of being accused of being political. This is a political issue but it affects their members.

Secondly political parties should set aside their ideological commitments to either the EU or the government at Westminster and be honest about the implications for everyone in NI.

The Windsor Framework does not only affect unionists it affects us all in our pockets.

Thirdly there must be an acknowledgement that putting a border in the Irish Sea is not workable and the alternative of an arrangement where the EU and the UK mutually enforce each others laws and regulations when it comes to trade across the border is put in place.

Such an arrangement would ensure that NI is not split from the rest of the UK constitutionally and economically and the EU single market is not damaged by unsupervised trade coming into it from NI.

Such an arrangement is workable, could lead to the restoration of the assembly and save a lot of economic suffering in Northern Ireland.​

• Sammy Wilson is DUP MP for East Antrim