Northern Ireland described as ‘veritable colony’ in Windsor Framework debate

MPs have clashed while debating whether UK ministers should be able to scrap parts of the Windsor Framework – with one MP describing Northern Ireland as an EU “colony”.

Labour MP Andrew Lewin questioned whether words like “colonisation” are part of “the message we want to send” to Brussels, after TUV MP Jim Allister claimed Northern Ireland had become a “colony” of the EU after “the foundations of this United Kingdom have been disturbed and dislodged by these arrangements”, which sought to ease trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland while preventing a hard international border with Ireland,

The MP for North Antrim told the Commons: “What is a colony? It is a territory governed by someone else’s laws from a foreign jurisdiction.

“When you’ve 300 areas of law, including customs, including the very definition of what is Northern Ireland’s territory in trading terms, which are governed by foreign EU laws, then you’ve created the situation where Northern Ireland in that context is a veritable colony.”

“Ally”

Mr Lewin, MP for Welwyn Hatfield, intervened and said: “I believe that the European Union is our ally, 27 democracies, and I have to say I’m concerned by some of the language I’m hearing – he talks of colonisation, he talks of surrender.

“And I would just gently ask whether that is the message that we want to send to our 27 allies and friends in the European Union?”

Mr Allister, who tabled the European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill, later said in response: “The EU has behaved as a sovereign grabber in respect of Northern Ireland and that is where they caused the offence and continue to cause the offence.

“And if honourable members think it’s a good thing to back that up, to endorse that, then they obviously don’t think very much of the territory of Northern Ireland.”

Bill

The private member’s Bill would give ministers powers to block parts of the EU Withdrawal Agreement and Windsor Framework in UK law, in particular parts of the deal which apply EU customs rules on certain goods entering Northern Ireland, and which grant the Court of Justice of the EU jurisdiction over parts of the Withdrawal Agreement and framework.

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told MPs that Friday’s debate was “moving slightly into the ridiculous” in tone, and that Mr Allister’s proposal was “simply to give us a solution to what is an unworkable position right now”.

He added: “It isn’t about 27 nations hating the UK. It ultimately is about function.”

“Fantasy”

Mr Allister later described “the fantasy of dual-access bonanza” – a reference to the economic links between Northern Ireland and both the UK and the EU – and said: “We already have so many items, if you go to buy it online, it will pop up ‘not available in Northern Ireland’.

“Why is that? Because the small suppliers from GB find it impossible to handle the burden of bureaucracy, so they’re simply saying, ‘we’re not supplying to Northern Ireland’.

“And that is something which frustrates so many people in Northern Ireland, when you go to order something, ‘not available in Northern Ireland’.

“It’s a huge frustration for many including, I might say, Mrs Allister, who like many’s a woman wants to order things and finds ‘not available in Northern Ireland’.”

He had earlier claimed “the foundations of this United Kingdom have been disturbed and dislodged by these arrangements, so the primary purpose of this Bill is, yes, to fix those foundations, to restore equilibrium to Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom”.