A TORY MP has rubbished claims issues with trade to Northern Ireland are an “inevitable consequence of Boris’ Brexit deal”, saying he “fundamentally disagrees” with it on BBC Newsnight.
John Penrose, MP for Weston-super-Mare, was asked by Newsnight host Emily Maitlis about the issues with post-Brexit check at Northern Irish ports. Under the Prime Minister’s Brexit trade deal with the EU, certain goods entering Northern Ireland from the UK are subject to checks on arrival as the country remains part of the European single market.
Mr Penrose condemned the issues with trade to Northern Ireland, which has delayed food supply deliveries and caused threats to border staff.
He said: “As the Prime Minister said, it’s not acceptable. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be working, and I think Michael Gove said earlier on today there’s been real damage done and there’s real problems to solve.
“Now, the important thing is we’ve only had 34 days of it, I completely agree with Ian that we don’t want to have another 34 days like that but we are still in the early days. There is time to fix this, but fix it we must.
“We must not just say ‘let’s all keep calm’ and use that as an excuse to do nothing.”
In response, Ms Maitlis cited a quote from Professor Anand Menon, director at UK in a Changing Europe, earlier in the programme who held the issues with northern Irish trade was an “inevitable consequence of Boris’ Brexit deal”.
Mr Penrose disputed the claim and said: “I would fundamentally disagree with the analysis of the piece that you were quoting there about it being an inevitable consequence.
“What we’ve got are some serious problems but we have got mechanisms in the protocol, there is a committee for example set up between, Michael Gove is on it, Mr (Maros) Sefcovic from the EU is on it, which is specifically there to cope with problems when they arise, and these are problems.
“I’m not trying to minimise them, they need to be fixed, but we’ve got to give it a chance and we’ve got to work through them rather than just throwing everything up in the air.”
Prof Menon said ahead of Mr Penrose’s comments the Northern Ireland Protocol imposes “the need on checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland”.
He added: “The open question was how intrusive those checks would be.
“That was partly a function of how close the relationship negotiated in the UK-EU trade deal was.
“That’s quite a distant relationship, and what we’re seeing now is the cumulative effect of the protocol and the trade and cooperation agreement.”
The Prime Minister has blamed the EU for the issues with Northern Ireland, claiming the bloc “undermined” the protocol meant to protect trade.
After DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr warned Mr Johnson Northern Ireland felt “betrayed” by the Brexit deal, he said: “We will do everything we need to do, whether legislatively or indeed by triggering Article 16 of the protocol, to ensure that there is no barrier down the Irish Sea.”
Mr Johnson added it was “most regrettable that the EU seemed to cast doubt on the Good Friday Agreement, the principles of the peace process, by seeming to call for a border across the island of Ireland”.
The EU triggered Article 16, which allows both the bloc and the UK to override the Northern Ireland Protocol, last Friday over fears coronavirus vaccines were being diverted from Europe into Britain.
The move sparked outrage in both Britain and Ireland, and was retracted the same day.
Arlene Foster, DUP First Minister, has demanded Mr Johnson scrap the protocol as it “cannot work”.
She said in the Telegraph: “We have repeatedly warned the Government about the serious disruption caused to our GB-NI supply lines by the Protocol.
“Indeed, when we talked to the Prime Minister on Wednesday, he agreed that what the EU was doing “goes beyond the bounds of common sense”.
“The scale of the unnecessary paperwork and procedures for business is wholly disproportionate to the risks. These are not teething problems as the Government initially suggested.”
This article was originally published on the Daily Mail website on 05/02/2021:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1393248/Brexit-news-bbc-newsnight-Northern-Ireland-port-checks-eu-uk-mp-latest-ont