Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 29 June 2022
We will support the Government motion and the Labour amendment.
The European Union had a largely unrecognised, but central, role in the Northern Ireland peace process. It formed a cradle within which peace could thrive. As Ireland and the UK were both members of the EU, it allowed a way forward to develop. The border between north and south could be removed so that there could be free movement of goods and people across Ireland and with the rest of the United Kingdom.
It was reckless of the man who is now Prime Minister, and the leave campaign, to ignore the extensive warnings about the consequences of removing that cradle. The Prime Minister was dishonest to tell people that he had found a good solution, because there is no good solution. Whether the border is between north and south or east and west, there needs to be a border, and borders cost. The protocol that Boris Johnson condemns today is the one that he praised three years ago. The more the UK wishes to diverge from the EU, the greater the pressure there will be on that border.
I would love to be able to say that there is a good solution to the problems that have been caused to Northern Ireland by our exit from the EU, but there simply is not one. There are least worst options. The protocol may be the least worst option, but it is hardly a model for success, which makes it all the more surprising that the First Minister holds it up as a template to aspire to. The chaos, the tension and the disruption make the protocol a model, according to Nicola Sturgeon.
Last April, the First Minister was interviewed by The Irish Times and was very optimistic about the Northern Ireland protocol and, as always, what it could mean for her and her campaign for independence. She said:
“yes, I think that does offer some template”,
and that it would address
“any practical difficulties for businesses trading across the England-Scotland border.”
To hitch her independence ambitions to anything from Northern Ireland was brave.