Editorial: ​Former Northern Ireland Office minister's call for fundamental change on Irish Sea border deal is welcome

​The acknowledgment by a former Tory NIO minister that the Windsor Framework needs fundamental changes is to be welcomed. ​Lord Caine joked this week that he was responsible for, or “some might say guilty of”, taking a number of the measures contained in both that deal and the subsequent Safeguarding the Union deal.

However, he has now expressed concern that despite those deals having, in his view, “ameliorated” some of the worst impacts of the Irish Sea border – serious problems remain.

The Conservative veteran is his party’s Northern Ireland spokesperson in the Lords, so his intervention will be interpreted as a sign of growing acknowledgement in the official opposition that the current arrangements are not tenable.

DUP peer Lord Dodds – an arch critic of both the framework and the subsequent Safeguarding the Union deal his party signed with Lord Caine’s government – has welcomed his comments. He says it is a sign of a growing acceptance in Westminster that the Windsor Framework needs to be revisited.

There is no indication that is a road the Labour government is prepared to go down. Instead, it is pursuing a strategy of aligning Great Britain with the European Union – and by extension Northern Ireland – in areas such as SPS (plant and animal produce).

It says that will smooth trade – which it undoubtedly will where rules align. However, it leaves the architecture of the Protocol in place, and leaves Northern Ireland vulnerable to future changes.

And as Lord Dodds and other unionists have pointed out, the deal is not just about trade. Its human rights provisions have left the province in limbo on issues like legacy, immigration and sex-based rights. Fundamental changes are required.