People take part in a protest in Newtownards, County Down, against the Northern Ireland Protocol on June 18, 2021
(Picture: PA Archive)Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris risked a backlash over Brexit on Thursday when he claimed the authors of the Northern Ireland Protocol did not understand the impact it would have.
Mr Heaton-Harris, who is Northern Ireland Secretary and a Brexiteer, made the remark as the UK and the European Union prepare to launch a new push to resolve the impasse over the protocol.
In another admission, City grandee Lord Wolfson, who backed leaving the EU, urged the Government to relax migration rules to ease staff shortages, saying “in respect of immigration it’s definitely not the Brexit I wanted”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was meeting Ireland’s premier Micheál Martin later today at a British-Irish Council meeting in Blackpool as part of attempts to end the protocol stalemate.
Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which has been paralysed by the dispute over the post-Brexit trade deal, will be delayed until early next year to “create space” for talks with the EU.
Mr Heaton-Harris said the protocol remained the biggest obstacle to a breakthrough, and claimed the consequences were not understood when it was agreed by Boris Johnson in 2019.
“When it was written I honestly don’t think the people behind writing it thought it would have the ramifications that it has,” he told Sky News. “Politicians are legislators. Legislators are very good at creating law but when the rubber hits the road sometimes you get unforeseen consequences.”
Trade expert David Henig said: “The consequences of the protocol, in terms of checks for goods entering from Great Britain, were clear when it was published. Conservative MPs were warned but chose to ignore the consequences.”
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran said: “Conservative ministers knew exactly what they were getting into when they signed the protocol.” The agreement removed the need for land border checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Ireland, but set up a new trade border in the Irish Sea. Many unionists believe this created a divide with the rest of Britain. The Democratic Unionist Party is refusing to join the NI executive unless the protocol is changed.
After six months of stalemate, new elections to the Assembly will be held in the first three months of next year in an effort to restore power sharing.
Lord Wolfson, who is chief executive of retailer Next and a Tory peer, today said the Government needed to relax its post-Brexit migration policy. “We have got people queuing up to come to this country to pick crops that are rotting in fields, to work in warehouses that otherwise wouldn’t be operable, and we’re not letting them in,” he said.
Meanwhile Mr Heaton-Harris backed Sir Gavin Williamson’s decision to resign as a minister over bullying allegations. He told Sky: “He did something. He allegedly did something that is very ... it was a very serious allegation. So, it was right to resign.”
