Northern Ireland Protocol Bill

Baroness Suttie Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 11th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Suttie (LD)]

My Lords, it is always a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, who always speaks with such experience, wisdom and, if I may say so, honest-to-goodness common sense.

As previous speakers have said, this is a bad and unnecessary Bill, which sets a number of dangerous precedents. As my noble friend Lord Purvis of Tweed set out so clearly in his speech, the Bill is widely considered to breach international law. It damages our international reputation and threatens the economy at a time when we are already facing economic turmoil on so many fronts. Perhaps most importantly of all, as the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, spelled out so clearly, the Bill is not something that the majority of people in Northern Ireland or the business community actually want.

Over the last few days, I have therefore found myself asking why the Government continue to insist on pushing ahead with the Bill when the new Prime Minister and her new Cabinet could have used the opportunity to withdraw the counterproductive threat that it represents. If the Bill was meant to reverse the distrust that has developed in Northern Ireland politics in recent years, pushing ahead with it, rather than using the available route of negotiations, risks alienating the majority in the Northern Ireland Assembly who want to see a negotiated settlement. Does the Minister not agree that this is a very high price to pay at a time when re-establishing trust is so vital for progress to be made in Northern Ireland politics and for the Executive and Assembly to be able to get back to work? Does he further acknowledge that recent opinion polls in Northern Ireland indicate that the majority of people want to see the protocol amended and improved so that it can be made to work?

If the Bill was meant to strengthen the Government’s negotiating hand, it is very hard to understand how threatening to breach a previously agreed international treaty will encourage other future partners to trust us. It is also potentially deeply damaging to our relationships with both Washington and Brussels; that matters at a time when it is so vital for us to stand together against Vladimir Putin’s increasingly appalling actions in Ukraine and, indeed, within Russia itself.

If this legislation was meant to reassure the Northern Ireland business community then it is hard to see how pushing forward with the Bill rather than concluding the negotiations as soon as possible will be helpful for providing economic certainty at this time. Businesses in Northern Ireland, as well as those businesses in Britain who work with Northern Ireland, are crying out for a period of economic certainty so that they can plan and move on from the atmosphere of uncertainty that has prevailed since 2016.

It is very welcome that Chris Heaton-Harris has changed the tone since becoming Northern Ireland Secretary. When I worked in the European Parliament, Chris Heaton-Harris was known as an MEP who understood the importance of co-operation and building trust, so it is welcome that, at least so far, he is adopting a constructive and positive approach. This is greatly to be welcomed and long overdue.

Like my noble friend Lord Purvis, I also welcome the belated acknowledgement by Steve Baker that mistakes have been made. Since 2016, politics and the economy of this country have suffered from a series of short-term fixes, primarily to deal with splits within the Conservative Party. It was never going to be possible to do all of the things that successive Conservative Governments have promised regarding Brexit but, given the global political and economic crises we are currently facing, surely this is the time for the Government to think of the long-term good and avoid yet another period of potentially disastrous, self-inflicted economic and reputational damage to this country.

I urge the Minister in his concluding remarks to pause or, preferably, drop this Bill altogether and give new impetus to the negotiations, and to make sure, for the sake of the people of Northern Ireland and the whole of the United Kingdom, that this time they succeed.