There will be light Irish Sea border checks admits Michael Gove, who says Boris Johnson was talking ‘in a context’ when he said otherwise

Michael Gove, who is a key member of the prime minister’s cabinet, said that Mr Johnson had already known that there would be some checks, because of the existing Irish Sea checks on livestock, but that he had been referring to major checks such customs.

But on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC yesterday he was repeatedly grilled about the prime minister’s insistence that there would be no checks at all.

Mr Gove said that the government “will be saying more about the specific situation in Northern Ireland later this month, but we will be building on the command paper which we published earlier this year which lays out the way in which we can ensure that there’s no need for customs infrastructure on the island of Ireland and what we are doing is making sure that people in Northern Ireland can continue to have unfettered access to the whole of the UK”.

Mr Marr asked him about the concerns of some cabinet colleagues that EU tariffs will be implemented “as a default to all imports in Northern Ireland on the 1st of January 2021”.

Mr Gove said that he did not want to pre-empt the government’s coming comments on “how we are going to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol”.

He said: “Well there are some specific checks that will occur for products of animal origin — sorry to be so technical, but in essence, we’ve known that the island of Ireland, since Victorian times, has been a single epidemiological zone so that vets know that you treat the island of Ireland differently for some rules than Great Britain ...”

He said that during the BSE outbreak “the fact that Ireland was treated differently was something that the Reverend Ian Paisley was very pleased by he said my voters are Irish but sorry my voters are British but my cows are Irish”.

Mr Gove added: “Now in respect of the Northern Ireland protocol there will be some checks for products of animal origin that go from GB to Northern Ireland but we want them to be as light touch and minimal as possible.”

Mr Marr said: “So let’s just clear up one thing for sure which is what Boris Johnson said in December, he said that there’s no question of there being checks on goods going from Northern Ireland to Great Britain or from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Let’s be honest and straightforward, that is no quite true, is it?”

Mr Gove said “the thing is that it is certainly not going to be the case that you will have customs officers saying, you know, halt, and so on. What you will have are vets who will be suitably equipped in order to carry out surveillance and as I say most cases because we will have the same standards on both sides of the Irish Sea, there won’t be any impediment to trade”.

Pressed again by Mr Marr, he said that Mr Johnson “was talking about, was talking in the context of the sort of customs checks that we might see for example, in Calais”.

Mr Gove said that more than £700 million is to be spent on building new infrastructure, hiring staff and developing technology to ensure Britain’s border systems are fully operational when the UK leaves the EU at the end of the year.

He said that the major investment would ensure traders and the border industry are able to “manage the changes and seize the opportunities” when the transition period ends in December.

The funding relates only to the implementation of the GB-EU border, and the government will publish specific guidance and measures for Northern Ireland in the coming weeks.

The £705 million package includes £235 million for staffing and IT systems, and £470 million for port and inland infrastructure to ensure compliance with new customs procedures and controls.

New border infrastructure will be built inland where there is no space at ports, while ports will get one-off financial support to ensure the right infrastructure is in place.

Of the £235 million for staffing and IT systems:

• £100 million will be used to develop HMRC systems to reduce the burden on traders.

• £20 million will be spent on new equipment to keep the country safe.

• £15 million will go towards building new data infrastructure to enhance border flow and management.

• £10 million will be used to recruit around 500 more Border Force personnel.

Mr Gove said: “We are taking back control of our borders, and leaving the single market and the customs union at the end of this year bringing both changes and significant opportunities for which we all need to prepare.”

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers — and consequently the revenue we receive — we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor