Kate Hoey: I urge Doug Beattie to stand with us again in a joint unionist demand that Northern Ireland be a full part of the UK

(Scroll down for letter from Nigel Dodds, article by haulier Paul Jackson, editorial criticising Chris Heaton-Harris)

The position of the Ulster Unionist Party on the Framework agreement has caused justifiable angst across the pro Union community. In September 2021 the joint-unionist Ulster Day declaration pledged ‘unalterable opposition’ to the Protocol and set out that the ‘subjugation’ (the Court’s word) of the Acts of Union was a fundamental change of NI’s constitutional position and represented a breach of the principle of consent.

In recent days it appears the UUP Leader Doug Beattie has abandoned that pan-unionist position. It was the purported core constitutional safeguard (the principle of consent) that formed the basis of unionist support for the Belfast Agreement. I was proud to campaign alongside Lord Trimble for what we were led to believe was a political settlement, with a solid constitutional guarantee embedded. That was the basis which allowed Lord Trimble to win the support of a slim majority of the unionist community for entering power sharing arrangements which included republicans.

However, since 1998 what was sold as a settlement has transformed into a process, which has led to concession after concession to nationalism, with the Union being incrementally dismantled. The most seismic assault on Northern Ireland’s constitutional status taking the form of the imposition of the protocol and its accompanying border in the Irish Sea. The principle of consent has been shown to have been a deception, and it is for this reason Lord Trimble prior to his death stated he had been “betrayed”, and I too publicly withdrew my support for the Belfast Agreement in the form it has been implemented.

It is a matter therefore of some concern that the present leader of the UUP appears somewhat relaxed, or confused, about the constitutional damage inflicted by the dismissal of the foundational basis of our Union. Mr Beattie has claimed there are “opportunities” in the New Framework, and that unionism should return to Stormont to exploit them. There is no opportunity in the entrenching of the Irish Sea border (and there remains a customs border, see Article 9 (2) of the joint-committee legal text), and it is that border- and subjugation of the Acts of Union- which any unionist who enters the NI Executive would be obligated, as a matter of law, to implement.

Unionism must stand united, and I urge Doug Beattie to stand with all of us who want to restore Northern Ireland’s place as an integral part of the U.K. and defending our equal citizenship within the United Kingdom.

Baroness Hoey, Ex Labour MP, House of Lords

Nigel Dodds: It turns out Stormont brake is unworkable

Ben Lowry: It has been a winding route to defeat for unionists over the Irish Sea border

Haulier Paul Jackson: Far from getting rid of the Irish Sea border, the Windsor Framework reinforces it

Editorial: So much for the feared Brexiteer and unionist, Chris Heaton-Harris