Secretary of State Hilary Benn has hailed the first anniversary of the deal which ended the unionist boycott of Stormont - despite claims that his government is not seriously trying to implement it.

January 31 last year saw the ‘Safeguarding the Union’ command paper launched by then DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Conservative Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris – resulting in the restoration of power-sharing at Stormont.

The DUP-Tory deal was intended to resolve difficulties with NI bringing goods in from GB caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol, which left NI in the EU single market after Brexit.

However, eyebrows have been raised by many observers and unionists about the way in which the current Labour government has said very little about the Tory Safeguarding deal, and instead referred much more to the earlier Windsor Framework, also intended to address unionist concerns.

placeholder image — Secretary of State Hilary Benn has hailed the first anniversary of the deal which ended the unionist boycott of Stormont - The Safeguarding The Union agreement.

Since Labour came to power in July last year, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) appears to have released six relevent media statements and a letter to the Stormont Speaker mentioning the Windsor Framework 23 times.

By contrast it appears the Safeguarding deal appears to have been mentioned only three times - with two of those mentions today.

In addition, there is currently a governmental Windsor Framework Task Force - but no apparent equivalent for its successor - the Safeguarding deal.

In a statement issued early today, Mr Benn said: “The Safeguarding the Union command paper that led to the restoration of power-sharing – one year ago today – was the result of painstaking negotiations, hard work and political courage.

“This UK government is committed to protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market, and we will continue to make progress in delivering Safeguarding the Union and taking forward the basis on which devolution was restored.

“I commend all those who are working to make sure Northern Ireland fulfils its full potential; and for our part the government is committed to working in partnership to deliver for Northern Ireland within our United Kingdom.”

‘FAILURE OF IMPLEMENTATION’

In October DUP leader Gavin Robinson accused the government of ‘reneging’ on a commitment in the Safeguarding deal - "Not for EU" labelling which was intended to keep GB retail goods on NI shelves.

However at that time the NIO announced that the scheme had been scrapped and replaced with a commitment to monitor the situation and intervene if necessary.

The DUP leader said Labour had “reneged on a commitment” they had previously supported – but said the Safeguarding deal had secured bodies which will be vital to monitoring trade issues caused by the sea border.

At the time the TUV said the government announcement was yet another example of how assurances in the “dud” Safeguarding deal were “worthless”.

DONALDSON CLAIMS

When the deal emerged in January last year, former DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said his Safeguarding deal delivered “zero checks, zero customs paperwork on goods moving within the United Kingdom”.

He claimed: “That takes away the border within the UK” – adding that it wasn’t perfect but he would “be honest with people about what we’ve been able to deliver”.

However, on 10 January this year, current DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the Windsor and Safeguarding deals together "did not secure all of our negotiating objectives, nor did these agreements remedy a number of the long-term problems born out of the NI Protocol".

He said outstanding goals include removing the application of EU law in NI. "There are weekly examples where costs are being driven up for manufacturers and additional paperwork is creating a chill factor for GB-based companies currently supplying the NI market," he added.