Northern Ireland Border

Peter Bone Excerpts

Thursday 3rd February 2022 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the Prime Minister is absolutely engaged in these issues, as are the Northern Ireland Secretary and the Foreign Secretary. Those of us who were in the last Parliament can all recall that finding a resolution to this particular challenge around trade between GB and Northern Ireland was a difficult problem to solve. The Northern Ireland protocol had a solution, but it required both parties to continue to work through certain details to make it work in practice, and that is what we have been doing.

[Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)]

Following on from what the Secretary of State has just said, is it not extraordinary that 20% of the checks that the EU has with third countries are between Great Britain and Northern Ireland? It is even more crazy, because the vast majority of those goods are circulating within the UK single market. Will he give the House an assurance that he will always put the interests of Northern Ireland above the interests of the EU?

[George Eustice]

Through the Joint Committee process and the negotiations led by the then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), we secured easements for the major retailers in particular, and other arrangements that set aside the requirement for export health certificates until a more durable solution could be found. It is the case, as my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) says, that the European Union has a very legalistic approach to the proportion of goods that it inspects, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to the degree of risk. The UK Government think that there is no sense in such an approach, and our own future border arrangements will be based on a calibrated assessment of risk, not on an arbitrary percentage figure plucked out of the sky.