Ex-negotiator Lord Frost says UK/EU deal keeps Protocol intact and merely smooths its operation

Lord Frost made the comments in today’s Daily Telegraph, and whilst he his critical of the deal, he wonders if it may be best to accept it nevertheless.

One key claim he makes is that the government was never serious about pushing through the Northern Ireland Protocol bill, and the EU could tell.

He wrote: “Most Conservatives, including some prominent Brexiteers, without much evident scrutiny or reflection, have come out in support. It is hard to see much real parliamentary opposition and the DUP’s position remains uncertain.

"In short, it’s going to happen.

At one level, so it should. The negotiating team has worked hard to get a deal making the Protocol easier to operate, including changes to the Protocol text, which the EU had hitherto refused.

"Customs burdens are reduced and UK-standard food and drink can now be sold in Northern Ireland. There is new, but not complete, flexibility on VAT and excise duty rates. And Stormont can, maybe, obstruct the application of certain new EU laws in Northern Ireland.

“That is all worth having. What this deal does not seem to do is change the fundamentals.

"To restate them: the Protocol currently applies EU laws on customs, the goods single market, VAT and state aid in Northern Ireland...

"The Protocol is simply renamed the ‘Windsor Framework’. It is slightly amended but remains in place, and EU law remains supreme in Northern Ireland."

Lord Frost (a former diplomat to Denmark who was Chief Negotiator for Exiting the European Union for several key months in 2019/20) suggests that the deal “is the best we could persuade the EU to do because [the government] weren’t prepared to use the Protocol Bill and the EU knew it”.

But he concludes: “That doesn’t mean the deal shouldn’t go ahead. It will help. But it won’t remove the underlying tensions, even if the DUP does decide to go back into Stormont.

"It leaves the Government still only partly sovereign over all its territory. Just as in 2019, that is a bitter pill to swallow.”

(The full column from Lord Frost is on The Telegraph website today).