Rishi Sunak’s treasury ‘no friend of ours in fight against Protocol’: Paisley

DUP MP Ian Paisley told the News Letter that under Mr Sunak’s leadership, the UK Treasury “have not been our friend” when it comes to battling against the post-Brexit trading arrangements so loathed by unionists.

It comes after two ministers, who are both backing Liz Truss in the dogfight for the Tory leadership, said that they had found Mr Sunak to be “backwards-leaning” when it came to taking action against the Protocol.

Whilst the EU technically left the EU on January 31, 2020, this was followed by a transition period.

Once that ran out on January 1, 2021, the Protocol took effect, meaning that for the last 588 days Great Britain has been out of the EU single market, whilst Northern Ireland has been effectively kept in it – creating a system of port checks on goods from Great Britain arriving at Northern Irish docks.

A bill now before Parliament intends to “disapply elements of the Northern Ireland Protocol, and provide delegated powers to Ministers to make new law in connection with the Northern Ireland Protocol” according to the government.

Called simply ‘the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill’ it was brought to the Commons by Liz Truss in June and now awaits debate in the Lords (though this will not be for a few weeks, since Parliament is in summer recess until September 5).

Writing in The Daily Telegraph this week, chief treasury secretary Simon Clarke andbusiness secretary Kwasi Kwarteng set out why they are backing Mrs Truss, saying they believed she would cut taxes if she got into Number 10, whilst Mr Sunak would continue to impose “the highest tax burden in 70 years” on citizens.

Then the two ministers turned their attention to Mr Sunak’s Brexit stance.

“He talks about cutting EU regulations, yet dug his heels in as chancellor against efforts to do exactly that and realise the benefits of Brexit,” the two ministers said.

“We both saw it in Cabinet, including resisting reforms to the EU’s Solvency II regulation – making it harder for pension funds and investors to invest in British business and infrastructure – and being backward-leaning on moving ahead with legislation to fix issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol [News Letter’s emphasis].”

Ian Paisley, North Antrim MP for the DUP, told the News Letter that it had been “mentioned at the time that the treasury was opposed to Liz Truss bringing forward the Protocol Bill”.

He said: “We had nothing at the time from the chancellor that that was his personal position, but the Treasury certainly were reluctant because of rethe issues of opening up the Brexit debate again, from the Treasury perspective.

“That’s what we’d picked up. I’m not surprised by [the two minister’s] comments.

“I’ve always publicly indicated I was more in favour of Liz Truss because she had the temerity to bring forward the Protocol Bill to fix the mess that has been made by the Conservatives on the Protocol...

“At the end of the day, I think the Treasury have not been our friends on this issue.”

Ultimately, whoever becomes Tory leader (and, by default, Prime Minister) is a matter for the Tories, he said.

But when it comes to the Protocol Bill, Mr Paisley said that “it’s in the hands of the House of Lords, and every day they delay getting it back to the House of Commons for final approval and for enactment, that’s a day Northern Ireland won’t have an Executive”.

Asked if the DUP will definitely re-enter government if it approves of the final shape of the bill and it becomes law, Mr Paisley said they need to first determine that “the worst impact of the Protocol is gone”.

The News Letter contacted the Sunak campaign about the comments by Mr Clarke and Mr Kwarteng, but no response had been received at time of writing.

imon Outspoken Brexiteer tycoon Ben Habib had written in the Daily Express on Monday that Liz Truss “is the only one battling for the integrity of our country and the reunification of Northern Ireland and Great Britain”.

He added: “Boris Johnson did not have the courage genuinely to challenge the EU. With him gone, she has a free hand either to drive through her Bill and the other legislation required to give it effect; or, better still, ditch the Protocol altogether.”

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