Jim Allister TUV Party Leader issues the following statement:
“Over the weekend we passed a disturbing milestone, 100 days from the introduction of the Green Lane Customs Border that will further divide our country into two from 1 October.
“However, on 31 January the then Deputy Leader, and now Leader of the DUP, Gavin Robinson MP celebrated his Safeguarding the Union deal, telling Parliament: ‘the Green Lane. It is gone.’
“On 8 April in a BBC interview with William Crawley on Talkback, he went even further when responding to a question about whether Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was correct to have talked in terms of the deal removing the Irish Sea border.
“Mr Crawley cited the following Sir Jeffrey statement:
“The Border between GB and NI on goods moving within the UK will be removed.
“To this Gavin responded:
‘Correct, will be removed, will be removed.’
“Having established that the border had not then been removed but would be removed, Mr Crawley then pressed Mr Robinson on when the border would be removed. To which Mr Robinson replied:
‘All commentary suggests that it is scaling up for the Autumn.’
“In truth, however, the main thing that is happening in the Autumn is the introduction of the second part of the Windsor Framework, the Green Lane Customs Border on 1 October.
“Like the Green Lane Sanitary-Phytosanitary (SPS) Border, introduced by the Windsor Framework on 1 October last year, the Green Lane Customs Border, will help the EU save the Irish Sea border which would have been destroyed by the original Protocol which was, by the Prime Minister’s own admission, completely unenforceable.
“Rather than removing the Irish Sea Border, the introduction of the new customs border arrangements will make our disenfranchisement in 300 areas of law, the Irish Sea Border created to protect the ‘integrity’ of the new jurisdiction resulting from our disenfranchisement, and our consequent alienation from the rest of the UK, more firmly established.
“It is nothing short of mind boggling that the Leader of the DUP should have sought to argue that the Autumn would validate the removal of the Irish Sea Border, when its effect is to help save the Irish Sea Border, with the division of our country through an enforceable new customs border in less than 100 days’ time.
“The application of the Green Lane Customs border, in addition to the Green Lane SPS border that is already in place, together with the Red Lane, is making the Irish Sea border the subject of the most complicated customs and SPS legislation in the world. Quite apart from the fact that implicit in this arrangement is the mass disenfranchisement of the people of Northern Ireland in 300 areas of law, it is also a major problem because complexity is difficult to navigate and increases costs to business.
“I am deeply concerned that after receiving a briefing on the introduction of the new Green Lane Customs Border from Trader Support Services (TSS), in preparation for implementation on 1 October, a group of traders were dismayed by what they heard.
“Such is the proposed complexity that they are desperate to meet the TSS and the Government to discuss the impending customs border but have been turned down because of the election and have issued the following statement.
‘Regardless of how you badge it, what is coming into operation on 1 October is a customs border, something that marks the boundary between two economies rather than the presence of one internal market. Perhaps the UK government and EU want to avoid implementation discussions with those who understand the full implications as they wish to prevent traders from evidencing that the new customs and SPS provisions between GB and NI now amount to the most complex arrangements in the world. With products sometimes qualifying, sometimes not, traders sometimes qualifying and sometimes not, declarations sometimes upfront and sometimes retrospective, and within a regional supply chain where the likelihood is that there would be a combination of some or all of these variations on exactly the same lorry. The significance of the new arrangements is that they make what was unenforceable under the Protocol, enforceable under the Windsor Framework but it leads to a complexity that our UK and European markets don’t understand. We are just becoming too hard to work with.’
Mr Allister concluded:
“Gavin Robinson has regularly boasted of the fact that the DUP has secured changes – most recently in his Mark Caruthers interview last week – but does not seem to understand that the these are a series of deeply embarrassing home goals that have only served to save the Irish Sea Border by exchanging an unenforceable Protocol with arrangements that are enforceable. Rather than fighting for the union, the DUP has naively allowed itself to be appropriated by the EU to save the border. The things they hold up as progress lay bare what amounts to an extraordinary failure of both leadership and competence on their part.
“This demonstrates why those who wish to continue living in the UK now need new leadership going forward, leadership that is competent, that understands the issues and leadership that is honest with the electorate.
“The way to resolve these issues is through Mutual Enforcement which would remove the need for the border in the Irish Sea and re-enfranchise the 1.9 million people of Northern Ireland, as set out in the TUV Manifesto and Irish Sea Border Policy document: The Irish Sea Border, The Problem, The Cause and its Solution.’
Notes to Editors
1) On 31 January Gavin Robinson told Parliament: ‘the Green Lane, it is gone.’ See Hansard, 31 January 2024.
2) On 8 April Gavin Robinson told William Crawley that the Irish Sea Border as it pertained to the Green Lane was in the process of being removed and that significant progress would be made in the Autumn. See his interview.
4) The TUV Irish Sea Border Policy document: Irish Sea Border, The Problem, The Cause and its Solution.
5) The DUP did not take offers of help with respect to Mutual Enforcement seriously see here.