Unionist division remain as new GB/NI customs measures come into force

​On the day red and green customs lanes between GB and NI became operational, a senior DUP figure said “fundamental problems” with the post-Brexit trading arrangements remain.
By Mark Rainey
Published 2nd Oct 2023, 06:00 BST
Shipping containers stored at a site at Belfast Harbour. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA WireShipping containers stored at a site at Belfast Harbour. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Shipping containers stored at a site at Belfast Harbour. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

​DUP chairman Lord Morrow has stated it is his party’s “over-riding objective” to see Northern Ireland’s position within the UK “fully restored,” but said: "We want to see a return to the delicate political balance within Northern Ireland where the views of unionists are valued and respected and cross-community consensus is the way that we deliver stability and prosperity for all our people.”

However, addressing delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Sunday, NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said there is “scope” to address unionist concerns around the Windsor Framework, but said we should “remind ourselves of the fundamental truth – the vast majority of Northern Ireland's economic life is dependent on its connection with the rest of the United Kingdom and that reality will not change”.

He added: “It's time to get on with business.”

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TUV leader Jim Allister shares many of the DUP’s concerns, and has denounced the new internal UK border as a “humiliating surrender of sovereignty" to the EU.

“This partitioning border, treating GB as a foreign territory and Northern Ireland as European Union territory, exists because Northern Ireland has been left under the EU’s customs code, designed to create a hard external EU border,” he said.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has rejected many of the concerns of unionist rivals, saying he does not believe the Windsor Framework will erode Northern Ireland’s status within the United Kingdom.

Urging all parties to help make Northern Ireland work – and to work towards the restoration of the powersharing executive at Stormont – Mr Beattie said: “I am not as a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, going to join these calls from people who said ‘the Union is over because we have a Windsor Framework trading deal’.

"Quite the opposite – I feel as British now as I was yesterday, and I will work to make sure that Northern Ireland works,” he added.

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Related topics:Doug BeattieChris Heaton-HarrisDUPJim AllisterConservative PartyManchester