Upcoming majority vote at Stormont is akin to ‘dispensing’ with unionists – Allister

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, has sent instructions to the First and deputy First Minister to bring a Stormont vote on the Windsor Framework. Photo by Kelvin Boyes  / Press EyeSecretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, has sent instructions to the First and deputy First Minister to bring a Stormont vote on the Windsor Framework. Photo by Kelvin Boyes  / Press Eye
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, has sent instructions to the First and deputy First Minister to bring a Stormont vote on the Windsor Framework. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye
Northern Ireland’s politicians will soon have their say on whether they want to keep the Windsor Framework in place, after the Secretary of State yesterday wrote to Stormont’s First Ministers to request a vote.

​It will be the only major controversial decision in decades which hasn’t required the support of both unionists and nationalists – with a simple majority of MLAs required to keep the Irish Sea border in place.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, failure to secure cross-community support will trigger a review process, and unionists aren’t likely to endorse the arrangements.

But a majority to keep the Protocol in place is already secured, with Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance certain to back the arrangements.

TUV leader Jim Allister, writing in The Critic, says the government has now initiated “one of the most remarkable and most disturbing procedures in the history of Northern Ireland” – because of the majority nature of the vote.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The decision facing Stormont throws up difficult questions for unionist parties. For the DUP – will the deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly play her part in securing the vote, by agreeing to the Secretary of State’s request for her and Michelle O’Neill to bring a motion to the Assembly?

If she doesn’t – it will be brought by an MLA from another party anyway, so what would be the point of a symbolic protest – which would only delay the inevitable by a few weeks? It seems likely the first ministers will bring the motion to the Assembly.

And for the TUV – which has opposed the fundamentals of the Belfast Agreement since the party’s inception – does it now accept that cross community protections are essential for unionists now they have lost their majority at the Assembly? And if so, what about power-sharing and mandatory coalition? Can there realistically be one without the other?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Since the original protocol came into being, the UK has been split into two economic zones, down the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland is in a hybrid arrangement – with goods entering its ports required to meet EU standards unless a special dispensation has been put in place by agreement with Brussels.

Goods being sold in physical shops are part of the Windsor Framework’s green lane arrangements – so long as traders meet the requirements of, and are signed up to, the UK Internal Market System.

But up to 60% of goods may still face a full EU customs border – seriously impacting supply chains and undermining the ‘dual market access’ which was a key selling point for the Windsor Framework.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In an article in The Critic, Jim Allister MP says that the events are “particularly alarming” for unionists because it is to be a majority vote, “as if the last fifty-two years never happened”.

Mr Allister said: “Unionists were not at all happy when we were told that, notwithstanding the fact that we were in the clear majority at Stormont, we had to forgo the benefits of majority decision-making out of regard for those who were not in the majority.

“And yet, as soon as we find ourselves no longer with the majority of seats at Stormont, and a proposition comes up that constitutes the greatest existential threat to unionism, not just in the last 52 years but in the last 103 years, we are told the protection can be dispensed with. Given the sacrifices we made for 45 years when we had the majority, that is a bit like saying that we can be dispensed with.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It is utterly shocking that the EU should be so ignorant of Northern Ireland that it should have made such a proposal and nothing less than appalling that our own Government should have agreed to it”.

He says a Yes vote from MLAs effectively means:

- Affirming the removal of Northern Ireland from the UK single market for goods and its insertion in an all-Ireland single market for goods – a necessary precursor to the creation of an all-Ireland state

- Affirming that in 300 areas the laws of Northern Ireland should be made by the Republic of Ireland and 26 other states, but not Northern Ireland or the UK in whole or in part and

- Renouncing the rights of the people of Northern Ireland to be represented in the legislature making the laws to which they are subject in 300 areas for a period of between 6 to 8 years.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.