Jamie Bryson: House of Lords report on Windsor Framework is ‘no basis to restore Stormont’

Speaking as director of the NI Centre for the Union, Mr Bryson said: “The conclusions of the House of Lords committee on the Protocol/Windsor Framework is demonstrable evidence as to why there is no pathway back to Stormont based on those arrangements.

“That is so because there is nothing which can be bolted onto the framework which will lift the subjugation of the Union. That subjugation imposed by the protocol is not only maintained, but further embedded by the framework.

“It is time for the secretary of state and his junior minister Steve Baker to get real, understand their overselling and spin has failed and realise that no self-respecting unionist will be swallowing any compromise on the constitutional integrity of the Union.

“Unionism won’t be bullied, won’t be coerced and won’t be played for fools. Heaton-Harris and Baker aren’t as smart or persuasive as they think they are. The views of the self proclaimed ‘hardmen’ of Brexit carry no weight amongst unionism.”

He added that any route back to Stormont requires an end to EU law in NI for those trading internally in the UK and a removal of any fetters on trade within the UK internal market.

“It is only by those outcomes that the Acts of Union can be restored,” he said.

But People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said the DUP response to the report strengthens the case for a border poll. He was speaking after the DUP’s Lord Dodds said the report proved the framework failed his party’s ‘seven tests’ to return to Stormont.

“Clearly, the DUP will only return Stormont on its own narrow terms,” Mr Carroll said.

“The House of Lords inquiry has failed to placate the DUP and it fails to account for the glaring problem of partition. Every day the DUP refuses to govern throws the failures of the Northern state and the sectarian institutions it has spawned into sharper relief.”