Prime minister Truss offers little comfort to unionists at Tory event over Northern Ireland Protocol

The prime minister made reference to having been in Northern Ireland several times to sort the NI Protocol, but said no more than that at an NI Tories reception.

Steve Baker’s apology to the Irish government continued to cause fallout among unionists. The junior NIO minister came under fire from critics, including Edwin Poots who said it could presage the “funeral” of the Belfast Agreement, and from the ex-MP David Burnside, who in a letter to this paper says that the government has a wrong to put right for unionists.

And pro-Brexit former UK minister Lord Frost in Birmingham issued a more gentle criticism of the government, telling Tory delegates that he felt ministers needed to present a firm front to the EU over Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, DUP MP Ian Paisley responded to our report yesterday of Michael Heseltine saying that the Lords would “massacre” the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill (which seeks to overhaul the Irish Sea border), by saying devolution might never return to Stormont if the Lords helped to bury the legislation.

At the conference, NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris again insisted he might have to call an election.

The prime minister spoke to a gathering of Northern Ireland Conservatives in the main conference hall in Birmingham last evening, as did Mr Heaton-Harris, and Mr Baker, whose apology to Dublin has made unionists think a deal with the EU might be imminent.

Despite this concern, not one of the three used the opportunity to reaffirm the government’s commitment to the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which seeks radical changes to the internal trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Ms Truss told cheering NI Tories that “they have my full support in building their strength in Northern Ireland”.

The prime minister added: “It’s fantastic to see our membership in Northern Ireland going up and up.

“I’m only sad that I missed the Ulster Fry which I think is our traditional breakfast here at the party conference, but I’ve been spending quite a lot of time in Belfast recently helping deal with the issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol which we are determined to sort out.”

This was met with loud shots of ‘hear, hear’.

Ms Truss went on: “It’s very important that we restore the east-west trading relationship so that we’re able to support both communities in Northern Ireland and support the primacy of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement. It’s great to be joined here by Chris Heaton-Harris, our new Northern Ireland secretary who is doing a fantastic job and has been spending lots of time in Northern Ireland recently.

“What is vitally important and what we’re talking about at this conference is how we need as a United Kingdom to boost economic growth, because economic growth isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet, what it means is jobs and opportunities right across our fantastic country.

“And that is very, very important in Northern Ireland. I want to see the assembly and the executive back up and running, I want to see decisions being made in Northern Ireland and I want to see new jobs, new investment, new opportunities.

“That is what we will deliver as this Conservative government.”

Mr Heaton-Harris and Mr Baker did not so much as mention the protocol in their own short addresses to NI Tories, in which they spoke warmly about Northern Ireland.

Earlier, Mr Heaton-Harris again raised the prospects of a deal . The Northern Ireland secretary also reiterated that he intends to call an election if institutions at Stormont are not restored by October 28.

The Stormont executive collapsed earlier this year after DUP first minister Paul Givan resigned in protest at the post-Brexit protocol.

Current legislation states that Mr Heaton-Harris must call an election on October 28 if the Stormont institutions are not restored by then.

He told the BBC: “I am going to push that button. If there is no election, the executive is stumbling around in this stupor that it is now.”

Mr Heaton-Harris was speaking after the DUP minister Edwin Poots told RTE that his party would not return to Stormont until issues were resolved. Mr Heaton-Harris responded: “I want to be in that position where we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10. I am talking to the unionist community as much as I am talking to anyone else.”

He added: “I genuinely think if we get to a negotiated solution where I think the landing zone is, if that comes about, it will work for all communities in Northern Ireland. I am convinced it will have the support of the DUP. If we get the negotiated solution that we are after, it will carry the support of all communities.”

Also at the Tory conference yesterday, the Brexiteer former UK government minister Lord Frost urged the government not to be weak in its negotiating approach over NI.

He told the News Letter: “We’re obviously beginning a new phase on the protocol under the new government and I think it’s really important to take the right approach from the start.

“If I’ve learned anything from all my years negotiating with the EU you’ve got to be 100% clear about what you want, clear about your objectives, not ambivalent, and maybe I’m misunderstanding but I’m not sure I quite understand all the signals the government is giving at the moment.

“Of course a negotiated settlement would be good but it must also be committed to the bill and it must also be clear that there can only be one outcome of this which is a shift of trade back towards the United Kingdom for Northern Ireland, that is an absolute bottom line.”

• Morning View, page 14