Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will make Brussels renegotiate: Beattie

Welcoming its support so far from a majority of MPs as the legislation progresses through the House of Commons, Mr Beattie said the bill will be “a driver and agitator for intense, focused negotiations between the UK government and the EU”.

Describing the legislation as “inevitable”, Mr Beattie continued: “However, it would be naive to describe the passing of this bill as a victory or that it will be a panacea to all the problems created by the protocol. What we need is real time political action. Unless enacted, the Protocol Bill won’t address the issues facing Northern Ireland.

“The best solution remains in a negotiated settlement between the United Kingdom and the EU to try and undo the harm created by a bad Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, which damages the Belfast Agreement and undermines our devolved institutions.”

On fresh UK-EU protocol discussions, the UUP leader said: “This cannot be a one-sided negotiation process and the UK government’s proposals, which the Ulster Unionist Party has directly fed into, deserve as much level-headed consideration as others.”

Mr Beattie stressed that the UUP has been consistent in its opposition to the NI Protocol since its inception in October 2019.

“While some political parties were welcoming the government’s proposals as a ‘serious and sensible way forward’ or claiming that customs posts in Northern Ireland didn’t affect our sovereignty, the Ulster Unionist Party immediately rejected them. We saw them for what they were, undermining trade with our biggest market – the rest of the United Kingdom – and damaging the Belfast Agreement, upon which our devolved institutions operate. The protocol was a monumental strategic political blunder negotiated and facilitated by the UK government and those who surrendered basic principles.

“There should never have been checks on medicines or foodstuffs coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of our own country. Just to put the record straight, despite what has been claimed by some political parties and the EU, the situation with medicines has not been resolved. There have been steps in the right direction, but they don’t go far enough.”

The UUP leader added that unionism now needs to focus on “long-term strategic political gain” rather than “short-term political sloganism”.