Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“The advices of 13 November 2018 from the Attorney General to the Prime Minster on the legal effect of the Northern Ireland backstop, released today, present a devastating insight into the extent to which Northern Ireland is being annexed permanently into the EU, despite the false promises of the PM and NI Secretary of State to the contrary.
“Interestingly, the advice published today is much more emphatic and plain than that dressed up for the summary released a few days ago.
“Para 7 of the document released today is very clear: “NI remains in the EU’s Customs Union, and will apply the whole of the EU’s customs acquis, and the Commission and CJEU will continue to have jurisdiction over its compliance with those rules…” (Para 8 of the advice quantifies this to mean NI will be subject to 300 different legal instruments applicable only to this part of the UK and over which the EU will have total jurisdiction.)
“Para 7 goes on to make clear that GB will be in a “separate” customs union with the EU, whereas we are in the Customs Union. Whereas, for now the whole UK will be in the same “customs territory”, that may change, as anticipated in para 17 where it speaks of the addition of GB to the EU customs territory as a “temporary ‘bridge to the future’ ” that the EU will not want to sustain.
“Indeed, at para 26, the Attorney General anticipates circumstances where the EU could “submit a formal notification to the Joint Committee arguing that the protocol was no longer necessary in part and that the GB elements of the customs union should fall away, leaving only NI in the EU customs territory..”
“So, the trap is clear. All of the UK for now is held in a customs territory with the EU, but only NI is legally part of the EU Customs Union, where we would stay indefinitely even if GB was released. This is utterly incompatible with the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom and, along with the regulatory border down the Irish Sea, would abandon us to the EU and its machinations.
“These are all points I raised in a letter to the Attorney General on 19 November 2018, to which he has still to reply. This advice confirms all my worst fears.”
Read the document here.