ConservativeHome, June 27, Sammy Wilson MP
Despite claims from successive governments and prime ministers, Brexit is not done – and the damage inflicted on political stability and the economy in Northern Ireland by the Withdrawal Agreement which terminated our membership of the EU has not been repaired.
Theresa May’s proposal for keeping Ulster in the Single Market and the Customs Union legally, and the UK as a whole through political assurances, was quite rightly thrown out by Parliament. Boris Johnson’s Protocol proved unworkable, and even those who supported it publicly then called for it to be changed.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak’s promises about his Windsor Framework have already started to unravel before it even becomes operational.
EU laws will still hold sway in Northern Ireland, with no democratic control. The Stormont Brake, which was supposed to give Northern Irish politicians a veto over EU laws, has already been shown to have all the strength of wet tissue paper.
The green lane, which the Prime Minister claimed would permit free access to goods coming from the mainland into the Province, requires huge EU manned border control posts to be built in Ulster.
Goods not even deemed at risk of entering the EU will be subject to 100 per cent paper checks, ten per cent physical checks, must have separate and expensive labelling, will have to be brought in by trusted traders, and will be subject to audits as to who eventually buys them. Hardly a recipe for frictionless internal UK trade.
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