Secretary of State 'showing a degree of delusion worthy of Boris Johnson' over impact of Windsor Framework on NI business - Aiken

​Steve Aiken has asked what gains Northern Ireland has had under the Windsor Framework, and if any government minister can point them out and “provide a detailed breakdown of the costs so far”.

However, the UK government has declined to respond directly to the South Antrim MLA’s questions – instead repeating its claim that the post-Brexit trade deal “remains the best way to protect Northern Ireland's unique position”.

Mr Aiken’s comments were in response to comments by the Secretary of State Hilary Benn, who told MPs last week that “Northern Ireland gains from the Windsor Framework because of its access – it does gain from its access to the EU market, other parts of Great Britain do not enjoy”.

However the Ulster Unionist MLA hit back at those comments, telling the News Letter that the cost of the Trusted Trader Scheme alone – set up to smooth trade for certain retailers – is approaching half a billion pounds.

He said the “added costs to business in hiring extra staff or paying for customs services for supporting goods transfer in the internal UK market, which must be considerable, added to the very real short and long term costs of two levels of bureaucracy must be quantified somewhere.

“Perhaps the Secretary of State in his push for ‘faithful implementation’ should commission some research into how much his government’s approach is actually costing - and equally importantly, who bears those costs.

“Far from being ‘best of both worlds’ the added bill of what must be more than €1bn in total would show that what our government should be doing is fighting the corner of the internal UK market, rather than placating an EU, whose interest is anywhere but the Irish Sea Border”.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “The Windsor Framework remains the best way to protect Northern Ireland's unique position, providing both access to the UK internal market and avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.”

However the UUP MLA hit back at that statement, saying that he had heard from business leaders at a party business breakfast last week “about the many and growing challenges of the Windsor Framework.

“In one respect the Northern Ireland Office is right, the Windsor Framework places us in a unique position, but uniquely disadvantaged with two sets of bureaucracy, waits of over 120 days for refunds on internal UK tariffs, with very real borders and divergence building in the Irish Sea.

“If the Secretary of State actually thinks this protects Northern Ireland he is showing a degree of delusion worthy of Boris Johnson”, Mr Aiken said.

Various details about the costs of running and providing mitigations for the Irish Sea border have trickled out over recent months.

Last month, figures obtained by the TUV suggested the cost is now approaching £1 billion. Much of the expense stems from the elaborate schemes put in place by the government to ease the flow of trade within the UK for businesses who had, before Brexit, traded freely.

Jim Allister had questioned the government about various aspects of the arrangements – such as the Movement Assistance Scheme (MAS) and the Trader Support Service (TSS).

The North Antrim MP said in March: “Quite apart from the ongoing and rising cost to business every day, arising from the partitioning of our country by the EU’s Irish Sea border, it is now clear from recent parliamentary replies to me that the costs to man and operate the border and build the extravagant infrastructure demanded by Brussels, is fast approaching £1 billion.

“These answers show that far from the Irish Sea border being gone, as the DUP claimed, it has already cost £650m to administer and almost £200m is being spent on the border posts where checks will be conducted on our trade from GB, overseen by EU officials”.

He said the government “decrees cuts in welfare and elsewhere but merrily squanders £1bn to placate the EU to whom it has surrendered Northern Ireland as a colonial territory”.