​Tory warning to Hilary Benn that failure to implement Safeguarding the Union would be 'breach of trust'

​Alex Burghart says key parts of the deal have been left to “languish” under Hilary Benn’s tenure – and “critical initiatives” have not been implemented.

Earlier this week, in response to a question from the News Letter, the Northern Ireland secretary did not commit to implementing the deal in full, and a key pledge to legislate on ‘not for EU’ labelling on food products was dropped last year.

However, Hilary Benn said that he was “committed to continuing to work in good faith to implement” the deal – and said a new body, Intertrade UK, would be established “shortly”.

Writing in today’s News Letter, Conservative MP Mr Burghart said: “Safeguarding the Union was a careful attempt to guarantee Northern Ireland’s economic and constitutional future following the Windsor Framework. It was intended not just to assist in the removal of administrative obstacles, but also to provide new, concrete proposals to protect fully Northern Ireland’s place in the Union and the UK internal market.”

He says that “despite the secretary of state’s warm words”, after seven months in power, Labour has “allowed key aspects of the agenda to languish”.

He added: “Critical initiatives – such as the full operationalisation of the East‑West Council and the launch of Intertrade UK – remain unimplemented. The statutory guidance that promised to deliver regulatory clarity has been delayed, leaving many businesses to navigate a patchwork of outdated protocols.

“Likewise, the requirement for the introduction of mandatory GB-wide ‘not for EU’ labelling has been dumped. Moreover, the government is meant to have published a series of papers that make the case, through sectoral analysis, for Northern Ireland’s place in the Union and ways in which to take it forward.”

While praising the command paper this week, Mr Benn also poured cold water on unionists’ preferred option of mutual enforcement, calling it “magical thinking”.