Editorial: A cautious welcome for potential Tory shift on Irish Sea border under Kemi Badenoch

The decision by Kemi Badenoch to back Northern Ireland’s unionist MPs in a Westminster vote on the Irish Sea border is to be welcomed, as it signals a potential shift on the issue by the Conservatives under her leadership.​

The vote was forced by the TUV leader Jim Allister – who opposed new UK trade regulations on the basis that Northern Ireland was treated as a ‘third country’ and therefore not a full part of the UK.

Until now, the most parliamentary support that anti-protocol MPs could muster was around 30 votes – but the backing of the Tory leader and many of her MPs more than doubled that figure to 77.

Of course, the vote was lost. But the willingness of the new leader to back Mr Allister on a point of principle on this issue is significant. Appointing her front bench, Mrs Badenoch appointed protocol critic Dame Priti Patel as her shadow foreign secretary.

That appointment was welcomed by some unionists, but they remain rightly sceptical about the Tory attitude to Northern Ireland. After all, it was their protocol and Windsor Framework deals which introduced and then cemented the regulatory border down the Irish Sea.

Mrs Badenoch, a keen Brexiteer, last year poured cold water on the notion that legislation could be introduced to stop divergence between GB and NI. She made it clear that the government would retain the right to diverge from EU rules – the same rules that govern NI’s goods market.

The Tory leader was a fighter as a minister – including on ‘woke’ issues within her own departments. Whether a fight with the EU over NI is something she would want in office is another matter. However, her vote is a promising start in broadening support nationally for unpicking the border dividing the UK.