Allister: Northern Ireland's promised 'magical foreign investment' never happened because of the Irish Sea border trade disruption
Claims about “magical foreign investment” that Northern Ireland would benefit from under the Windsor Framework didn’t happen because EU market access was counterbalanced by disruption to trade from the Irish Sea border, Jim Allister has told MPs.
The TUV leader was speaking in a Westminster Hall debate he secured on the arrangements which created the Irish Sea border.
During the discussion, the DUP leader Gavin Robinson said “every Ulster MP in Westminster Hall today rails against the fundamental impediment to our constitutional position and the overarching framework that has been imposed upon us against our will”.
But the Secretary of State Hilary Benn said “it was this Parliament that decided the way to reconcile the choices—impossible choices, in a way—that leaving the European Union created”.
North Antrim MP Jim Allister said the deal was “portrayed, sold and packaged as a tremendous opportunity for Northern Ireland. Some time later, we even had the President of the United States, President Biden, talk extravagantly about $6 billion of awaiting investment in Northern Ireland. We had acolytes of the Government talk about Northern Ireland becoming the Singapore of the western hemisphere, and it seemed that no boast was too large to make”.
He highlighted a recent appearance by Invest NI at Stormont’s economy committee, where they admitted there hasn’t been any foreign direct investment relating to Northern Ireland’s supposed ‘dual market access’ under the Windsor Framework.
A senior department of economy official had also said that trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland “remains evolving and uncertain”.
The TUV leader said there is “a very simple reason for that: the counterbalance to accessing the European single market is the fettering of our links to our GB supply market”. He said “that is why the framework has not produced that magical foreign investment”.
“Anyone looking at investing thinks about not just where they will sell their goods, but where they will get their raw materials from. If the raw material supply line is fettered by an international customs border governed by foreign law—and that is what it is—they are going to think twice about that, and obviously they have thought twice. All the proposals and packaging largely turned out to be insubstantial spin”, Mr Allister said.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson raised the often touted claim that Northern Ireland would have “the best of both worlds—the European market and the UK market” – but said that instead, businesses “have been shut off from their markets and cannot get supplies, and there are still many sectors of the economy that cannot get supplies from GB”.
Addressing the issue of an upcoming vote on the arrangements at Stormont – which will not require cross-community support – DUP MP Carla Lockhart said “those parties who hold up the Belfast agreement as the be-all and end-all are the very same people who are now content to allow a majority vote”.
Mr Allister said the message to Unionism “is a very chilling message” that “cross-community votes were only ever about protecting nationalism; they were never about protecting Unionism. Unionists are just meant to suck it up, because this is the way forward. That is unacceptable.”
While there was a largely united front from the unionist MPs from all parties in attendance, the DUP’s Gregory Campbell -while not criticising his TUV rival directly – returned to a familiar criticism he had made during the row over Safeguarding the Union. The East Londonderry MP referenced those who “keep complaining about” the problems with the framework but don’t do “anything about them”.
Ulster Unionist MP Robin Swann attended the debate but did not speak.