Northern Ireland Protocol Bill

Lord Godson Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 11th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Godson (Con)]

I rise in support of giving the Bill a Second Reading and as another member of the Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Jay, to whom I pay tribute for his role as chair and for his remarks.

This is also the first time that this House has assembled to discuss the affairs of Northern Ireland since the demise of my late noble friend Lord Trimble. I know it will unify the House to pay tribute to him; he was a friend to many here across many divides. More particular to this context, Lord Trimble’s last great cause was opposing the Northern Ireland protocol and the legislation required here today. He did it for many good reasons, not least of which was his view that it constituted a very serious undermining of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, for which, with the late John Hume, he became a Nobel laureate—the last Nobel laureate for peace to sit in either House of Parliament. He played a key part in the design of that power-sharing model: strand one on the internal governance of Northern Ireland, strand two on north-south and, perhaps most significantly for today’s purpose, strand three on the east-west dimension. All were underpinned by the principles of consent and, perhaps even more importantly in light of the legislation we are discussing today, parity of esteem.

More particularly, the late Lord Trimble negotiated the strengthening of those east-west institutions so that they were defined not solely by a relationship between Dublin and London but by a relationship between Belfast and London and between the other component parts of the devolved settlement in Edinburgh and Cardiff. It also provided Irish recognition of unionist identity and aspiration, as conversely it provided for recognition of many aspects of Irish culture, notably the Irish language.

It is significant that the recent book One Good Day by David Donoghue, the Irish head of the Anglo-Irish Secretariat in Belfast at the time of the Good Friday agreement, makes this very point. He writes that the Ulster Unionist Party

“could contemplate North/South bodies only as a by-product of an expanded East/West relationship … Unionists regarded such a”

British-Irish

“Council as a necessary counterweight to the North/South institutions which nationalists wanted. We had no fundamental difficulty with this. We understood the need for unionists to see their identity given institutional expression.”

I was particularly grateful for the earlier comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, acknowledging Tony Blair’s part in the forging of that settlement. Whatever differences and controversies there may be about his legacy—not least in the Labour Party—there is, as the noble Baroness said, no difference on this matter. It is important for this purpose: Tony Blair understood the late Lord Trimble’s concerns, when he was the Ulster Unionist Party’s leader, on consent for north-south co-operation and, above all, on the importance of the east-west relationship. More to the point, he became a persuader for that east-west relationship because he knew that it was key to David Trimble forging the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

That agreement, with power-sharing, north-south co-operation and strong guarantees for the east-west relationship, is therefore not only part of David Trimble’s legacy; it is part of Tony Blair’s and the Labour Party’s legacy as well. Indeed, he could describe strand 3 as comprising Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, with no mention—incorrectly, if I may say so—of an Irish dimension.

The protocol has damaged this key relationship, as noble Lords all recognise. East-west co-operation is now uncertain. Goods are subject to all kinds of checks and delays, and even a prohibition designed to protect north-south co-operation, without regard to the implications for the east-west relationship. That is not the basis for the harmonious relationship envisaged in 1998. It also, as indicated, contradicts the principle of parity of esteem for both communities. After all, if trade is important for the north-south dimension, it is equally important for the east-west dimension. This Bill is therefore a necessary corrective for rectifying the damaged relationship and restoring the balance—the delicate balance, as many speakers have pointed out— of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. I welcome it wholeheartedly.