NI Protocol has ‘potential to cause political instability’: DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

In a Parliament debate brought about by a 142,000 signature online petition, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said alternative arrangements that “respect Northern Ireland’s place within the UK” are needed.

The ‘Trigger Article 16’ Parliamentary petition was launched by DUP leader Arlene Foster earlier this month and quickly reached the 100,000 target to have it considered for debate in the Commons.

Although it was understood to be in a queue for consideration behind a number of other successful petitions, it was selected for debate this afternoon.

The DUP petition, in reponse to an EU/Boris Johnson deal that has effectively created a trade barrier between GB and NI, called for the triggering of the Article 16 clause that was designed to alleviate unforeseen serious difficulties.

Lagan Valley MP Sir Jeffrey said the fact that the petition reached the target of 100,000 signatures in only 24 hours “demonstrates clearly the strength of feeling in Northern Ireland about the damaging effect” the NI Protocol is having.

“It is creating economic instability in Northern Ireland and has the potential to create political instability, and that is why we need to see the government acting to deal with this issue,” he said.

“In this, the centenary year of Northern Ireland, we expect the government and the prime minister to act to address and resolve these issues and to replace the protocol with arrangements that respect Northern Ireland’s place within the UK,” Sir Jeffrey added.

The DUP, along with the other main unionist parties in Northern Ireland, has also launched a legal campaign of opposition to the protocol.

Also contributing to the debate was the DUP MP for East Antrim, Sammy Wilson.

Mr Wilson said: “The protocol annexes Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom. We have not so much been sold out, but sold on to the EU.”

Mr Wilson said that as well as EU laws continuing to apply to Northern Ireland, there will be additional EU legislation in the future.

“Any new EU laws, made in Brussels, will apply to Northern Ireland, and will apply with the full force of those laws, even though neither the UK government, the Northern Ireland Assembly, nor anybody in Northern Ireland will have a say on them.

“And if we don’t obey those laws, and implement them, the European Court of Justice will make the decision and impose sanctions on Northern Ireland for not doing so.”

Mark Francois, Tory MP and chair of the European Research Group, said the ERG was compiling a report that will hopefully provide solutions rather than just calling for the protocol to be scrapped.

He also said he would like to remind MPs that Margaret Thatcher once famously said that ‘Northern Ireland is as British as Finchley,’ and added: “As far as I and my friends in the ERG are concerned, it still is.”

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood warned that the protocol should be left in place to mitigate the negative effects of Brexit.

“The protocol is there to protect against a hard border in Ireland. It is there as a result of Brexit,” he said.

“There have to be checks somewhere. They won’t happen on the island of Ireland, but if people want them to happen on the island of Ireland then I think they should be honest with the public, that that is their position.”

Mr Eastwood said that as an Irish nationalist he will defend “the principle of consent,” as enshrined in the Belfast Agreement, but stressed the NI Protocol poses “no threat” to Northern Ireland’s position within the United Kingdom.

He added: “Sit down with the rest of us, work out any difficulties that have to be worked out and tone down the rhetoric, because it is creating all sorts of problems and tensions on the ground in communities that don’t need it.”

Mr Eastwood’s party colleague Claire Hanna said there is “no doubting the anxiety and emotional injury to those who feel their Britishness is being undermined, but those anxieties are being manipulated and intensified by political representatives who are focused more on deflecting blame than on finding answers.”.

Simon Hoare MP, the chair of the NI Affairs Committee, said there should be a “heightened awareness” among business owners in GB in respect of the new arrangements they will have to adhere to, and described calls of the triggering of Article 16 “naive and premature”.

He said: “This has the potential to be a golden age for the Northern Ireland economy”.

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