Gavin Robinson says 'greater urgency' is needed from the government on implementing Safeguarding the Union promises
The Government announced this week that former Northern Ireland and Welsh secretary Lord Murphy will carry out the review of the operation of the UK and EU’s framework deal, following a vote by the Stormont Assembly to extend post-Brexit trading arrangements for the region for another four years.
Lord Murphy has said he has a “job of work” to do, adding his role is to listen to the concerns people have about the trading arrangements.
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Hide AdHowever, Gavin Robinson said the recent Assembly vote “was rigged and discarded the principle of cross-community consent that is essential to all political progress in Northern Ireland”.
The East Belfast MP added: “We note this appointment and the review. It must be an honest assessment rather than an exercise of papering over or explaining the problems.
“The Government has been slow to appoint the Independent Monitoring Panel and enable Intertrade UK to get to work. There must be more urgency.
“The Windsor Framework and the last Government’s Safeguarding the Union command paper did not secure all of our negotiating objectives, nor did these agreements remedy a number of the long-term problems born out of the NI Protocol.
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Hide Ad“Building on progress secured to date, this party has a mandate to continue the fight to fully restore Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom. That includes removing the application of EU law in our country, which has created, and sustains, an internal Irish Sea border.
“There are weekly examples where costs are being driven up for manufacturers and additional paperwork is creating a chill factor for GB-based companies currently supplying the NI market.”
The Stormont debate and vote in December were required under the democratic consent mechanism in the Windsor Framework and were designed to give local elected representatives a say on the trade rules that now operate in the region.
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