Lord Empey: Arlene Foster is in no place to lead unionism out of the Irish Sea border mess that her DUP helped create

In a recent article in the Irish Times newspaper, Lord David Trimble, who along with the late John Hume was a key architect of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, makes a compelling case that the actions of both the UK government and the EU amounts to a serious breach of the agreement that both proclaim to be protecting.

Yet again, both London and Brussels steadfastly refuse to talk to the individuals who negotiated the agreement. Had they done so, the folly of their actions could have been avoided.

My colleague and former MEP, Jim Nicholson, described the protocol as ‘a sledgehammer to crack a nut’ and I fully agree with him. Workable alternatives are and were available, but Northern Ireland has been used as a bargaining chip from the start of the withdrawal process in 2016.

The Ulster Unionist Party has updated its proposals on how to solve this problem but what is lacking is the political will in London and Brussels to stop the process of using sticking plasters to fix problems on a day-to-day basis and realise that the protocol is fundamentally flawed in principle and undermines the Belfast Agreement.

Northern Ireland has moved from being a fully integrated component of the UK’s internal market to having something akin to ‘associate membership’ to which brutal conditions apply.

There has been widespread and, as far as I can see, universal unionist opposition to the protocol. But, sadly, that was not always the case.

The border in the Irish Sea is a self-inflicted wound because on the day that Boris Johnson proposed it to the EU, the first people to back him were Arlene Foster and her 10 Westminster MPs. On October 2 2019, when the prime minister unveiled his plans to saw off this part of the United Kingdom from Great Britain, Mrs Foster described his plans as ‘a serious and sensible way forward’.

Boris Johnson can therefore claim that at that stage, he did have unionist consent for the Irish Sea border!

While Mrs Foster and her colleagues try to wriggle out of their complicity, their Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson MP admitted on 18th October 2019, one day after Boris had done the deal with Brussels, that the DUP had given ‘the prime minister as much latitude in the negotiations as possible by saying that we would accept regulatory alignment for a period with the EU, but the safeguard was that the Assembly would be able to vote to change that arrangement if it was seen to be damaging to the economy’.

Mr Wilson therefore conceded that the DUP accepted a regulatory border in the Irish Sea, despite repeated statements that they would never do so, and he justifies their actions by a reference to the Northern Ireland Assembly being able to vote to change that arrangement.

What Sammy fails to point out is that at the time Boris Johnson got DUP support, there was no assembly functioning as it was suspended.

The DUP’s actions were reckless and have done untold constitutional and economic damage to Northern Ireland. Clearly the DUP were no match for the prime minister.

He ran rings around them, and today Mrs Foster is in no position to lead unionism out of the mess that she and her colleagues created.

Lord Empey, Ulster Unionist peer, who was one of the Ulster Unionist Party`s lead negotiators at the Belfast Agreement

• Editorial: Belatedly, unionism has swung entirely against Irish Sea border

• Letter Feb 20: The Irish Sea border is so bad that unionists must at least try to stop it

• Letter Feb 19: The unionist leaders are weak, with the exception of Jim Allister

• Letter Feb 18: Unionists have been let down by their political leaders over the Irish Sea border

• Letter Feb 18: Unionism sends a signal that it will bleat about the Irish Sea border but lacks guts to do what needs done

• Letter Feb 18: To remove Northern Ireland protocol unionists need to present a viable alternative to London and Brussels

• Letter Feb 16: A shocking lack of leadership from the DUP and UUP over the Irish Sea border

• Letter Feb 16: Main unionist parties seem unwilling to rock boat even if it means weakening Union

• Letter Feb 15: Arlene Foster should quit as DUP leader if she does not have stomach to lead unionism

• Letter Feb 15: DUP should do what is right and walk from Stormont

• Letter Feb 15: Both the DUP and the Ulster Unionists are aiding the demise of the Union

• Letter Feb 13: Peter Robinson faces unionist to face truths about implementing sea border

• Letter Feb 12: England has accepted break-up of Union and is forcing NI to united Ireland

• Jim Allister Feb 14: It may well be a choice between Stormont and the Irish Sea border, as Peter Robinson says

• David McNarry Feb 17: Unionists are demanding removal of the disastrous internal UK border

• Dermot Nesbitt Feb 17: Unionists say nothing about how the NI Protocol breaches international law

• Peter Robinson Feb 12: Unionists might face a choice between keeping Stormont or scrapping the Irish Sea border

• Feb 13: DUP and UUP reject Peter Robinson suggestion of collapsing Stormont

• Ben Lowry Feb 13: Peter Robinson has long experience of the what is and isn’t feasible

• Ben Lowry in 2020: Last night unionists celebrated a move towards Irish unity

• Jan 25: These 81 MLAs voted for absurd ban on importing soil into Northern Ireland

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