Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 29 June 2022
Thank you very much, Presiding Officer.
“O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!”
I have visited Brussels twice recently in as many months, as was mentioned by my deputy convener. One visit was to go to the parliamentary partnership assembly and one was a fact-finding visit for the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, so I have seen at first hand how Europe and the wider world see the UK—how they see us. In short, the UK is seen as being not to be trusted. If it enacts the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill unilaterally, it will be viewed internationally as a rogue state.
The bill represents a huge threat not just to Northern Ireland but to Scotland’s economy, our competitiveness and our consumers—our constituents. Scotland’s exports, including whisky, salmon and cashmere, could be affected—industries that are already having to contend with post-Brexit chaos.
The most recent National Institute of Economic and Social Research quarterly outlook states that closer links with the EU through trade and potential labour mobility have benefited Northern Ireland post Brexit. Northern Ireland is shielded because it was given a compromise—a compromise that was sought for Scotland but was denied, as we are tethered, against our will, to Brexit.
The question for my Conservative colleagues is this: Cui bono? Who benefits from those decisions—the decision to leave the EU, the subsequent decision not to progress implementation of the protocol, and now the decision to unilaterally introduce the bill? It is a bill that rips up a protocol that was agreed and which Boris Johnson and his Tory acolytes hailed as a triumph at the time. The protocol was negotiated in good faith between the Westminster Government and the European Commission, and by reneging on the first serious international treaty post Brexit, the Tories will do irreparable damage to the UK’s international standing.
The European Commission has announced new infringement proceedings against the UK Government over the alleged failure to implement and to staff border control posts at the Northern Ireland ports, and to provide real-time data on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I say to Mr Rennie that those were infringement proceedings that had been suspended but have been re-enacted because of the bad faith of the UK Government.
Having been in the room during the PPA, I heard the representations from the EU and UK delegations. The EU delegation was incredulous that, having solved the medicines issue and negotiated using what exists within the protocol to solve the difficulties, the UK seems not even to have responded—as Ms Hyslop said in her intervention—to the new proposals from the EU to make things work and to get round that table. It is the UK that is the problem in relation to the negotiation being taken any further. Mr Šefcovic’s comments have laid things bare: he has told us how that step by the UK would be illegal and could provoke a trade war.
The UK Government, in its bad faith, is willing to put the Horizon scheme at further risk. It is willing to put the Good Friday agreement at further risk. It is putting the commerce of our country at risk while our voice is silenced. In the PPA, the Senedd, Stormont and Holyrood do not have voices in the room; everybody sits there talking about Northern Ireland, but Northern Ireland does not have a voice in the room. That is untenable and it is a democratic deficit that will only get worse. Thank goodness we have a path out of this boorach.
16:59