Editorial: So much for the feared Brexiteer and unionist, Chris Heaton-Harris

Comments by the secretary of state, Chris Heaton-Harris, yesterday were telling.

He said: “I think the DUP have yet to come to terms with the significance of the parliamentary vote yesterday and how all the political parties in the United Kingdom believe that this is the best deal for our Union.”

Such a comment was possible, incidentally, because the Ulster Unionists spoke so favourably about the opportunities offered by the Windsor Framework that Mr Heaton-Harris could characterise even the UUP as supporting the deal.

But read Paul Jackson below (see link), the experienced haulier. His language is restrained, but his contempt for the Irish Sea border is clear, and he outlines the scale of the ongoing barrier even after Windsor. Peter Summerton (see links below), a similarly experienced freight transport boss, has been saying the same. What unionist, no matter how liberal, could support such a border?

Yet Mr Jackson and Mr Summerton are barely heard on the media, where there has been a non-stop business chorus in favour of the backstop and, incredibly, the original protocol when it was first launched (they are our business leaders but seemed not to understand it), and now in favour of the framework.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson politely said yesterday that he wanted to have further talks with the prime minister and secretary of state. Mr Heaton-Harris, to the delight of many commentators, cruelly slapped this down: "So there is nothing more to get out of that conversation. It is done."

And this remember was, like Steve Baker, a feared Brexiteer and unionist, treated with such loathing on his appointment. Boy have they pleased their nationalist critics, who now cite them against the DUP. Ministers in a government that won’t dare criticise Sinn Fein, a party fixated on ending Northern Ireland.

Paul Jackson: Far from getting rid of the Irish Sea border, the Windsor Framework reinforces it

Peter Summerton pre Windsor: Deal could make things worse by leading to fewer checks but more documentation

Peter Summerton after Windsor deal: Protocol deal seems to repeat many of the trade barrier problems of the previous arrangements