NIO confirms it tweaked GFA law for critical Assembly vote on NI Protocol - cross community consent will not be required

The government’s quiet amendment of Good Friday Agreement legislation to allow MLAs to pass the NI Protocol without cross community consent is a serious breach of the peace deal, unionists have said.
By Philip Bradfield
Published 27th Jan 2021, 06:30 BST
Updated 27th Jan 2021, 11:02 BST
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Under the terms of the NI Protocol the Assembly could vote to overturn it when it comes up for review in four years.

However PUP leader Billy Hutchinson has accused the government of an “unannounced manoeuvre” on December 10 in quietly amending the NI Act to ensure that cross community consent will not be needed to continue the Protocol. Instead, a simple Assembly majority will be enough to copper fasten it, which unionism lost in 2017.

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Mr Hutchinson added: “The PUP find this attempt to circumvent a key safeguard within the Belfast Agreement very disturbing and it also adds further urgency to our call for a Unionist Convention.”

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble (left), U2 singer Bono, and SDLP leader John Hume on stage for the 'YES' concert at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast in 1998, after the Good Friday Agreement. PA Picture by Brian Little/PAUlster Unionist leader David Trimble (left), U2 singer Bono, and SDLP leader John Hume on stage for the 'YES' concert at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast in 1998, after the Good Friday Agreement. PA Picture by Brian Little/PA
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble (left), U2 singer Bono, and SDLP leader John Hume on stage for the 'YES' concert at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast in 1998, after the Good Friday Agreement. PA Picture by Brian Little/PA

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) did not deny that it quietly amended the law.

“This is entirely compatible with the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement,” an NIO spokesman said. He added that cross-community consent applies only to devolved Assembly matterse but that the Protocol relates to an an international treaty “so the principle of cross-community consent does not apply”.

DUP Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds echoed the PUP concerns. “At the very core of the devolved settlement in NI is the consent of both communities, yet despite our protestations, the Government, cheered on by parties in NI, pressed ahead with the Protocol,” he said.

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UUP Leader Steve Aiken MLA said his party had also raised concerns. “The cross-community vote is a very important safeguard within the Belfast Agreement and if it is being disregarded then we must have a clear explanation from the UK Government as to why,” he said. It is “vital” that the community can have confidence in the mechanism for continuing or ending the Protocol, he added.

The NIO said cross community consent was not required for the vote.The NIO said cross community consent was not required for the vote.
The NIO said cross community consent was not required for the vote.

TUV leader Jim Allister said the government’s Protocol document made it clear MLAs could pass it with a simple majority vote.

“Of course, this is a flagrant breach of the supposed underlying ethos of the Belfast Agreement,” he said. “Once more the protections of the Belfast Agreement seem only to matter when they protect nationalists.”

Ulster University Politics Lecturer Dr Cillian McGrattan said the government “absolutely” had the power to act as it had but that PUP could claim “a moral victory” in challenging it.

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Related topics:NIOProtocolNI ProtocolMLAsNigel Dodds