Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Baynes Excerpts

Wednesday 28th February 2024 Commons Chamber

[James Daly (Bury North) (Con)]

3. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to safeguard Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.

[Simon Baynes (Clwyd South) (Con)]

5. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to safeguard Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.

[Dr James Davies (Vale of Clwyd) (Con)]

13. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to safeguard Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

We have ended the presumption of automatic alignment with EU law by making it clear that the very narrow set of goods rules that apply in Northern Ireland are subject to the democratic oversight of Stormont, including the Stormont brake. Once the brake is triggered for a rule, or where an entirely new rule is brought forward, it will be for the UK to determine at the Joint Ministerial Committee whether that provision should apply in Northern Ireland. Here again, the Government have established the protections available through statute. We believe that there are very strong reasons for saying that we have ended the presumption of automatic alignment.

[Simon Baynes]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend and the Minister of State on their very impressive achievement in restoring the Northern Ireland Executive. Does the Secretary of State agree that good cross-border transport links are vital to safeguarding all parts of our Union? In my border constituency of Clwyd South, Iusb think of the electrification of the north Wales main line, which links to north-west England, and improved road links, such as the proposed Pant-Llanymynech bypass between Wales and north Shropshire.

[Chris Heaton-Harris]

I have to congratulate my hon. Friend on making some excellent constituency points as well as highlighting the importance of good transport links across our Union. The need for those links was recognised in the “Safeguarding the Union” Command Paper, and more recently, earlier this week, when we talked about the reinvestment of money that would have been spent on the northern sections of High Speed 2 into ensuring good connections across our country. Those connections include the A75, which is a vital connection between Scotland and Northern Ireland.