Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister blames Theresa May for problems with Northern Ireland Protocol
Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister has blamed Theresa May for problems with the implementation of border arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Lord Frost told members of the Northern Ireland Assembly on Friday that current issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol were “to a very large degree” the fault of negotiations under Mr Johnson‘s predecessor as prime minister.
The protocol – agreed and signed by Mr Johnson and which replaced Mrs May‘s “backstop” – is designed to avoid a post-Brexit hard border on the island of Ireland and is a key part of the UK’s divorce deal with the EU.
Brexit minister Lord Frost is seeking adjustments to the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol
However, Mr Johnson has said the current implementation of the protocol – which keeps Northern Ireland within much of the EU’s single market and customs rules – is having a “damaging impact” on the people of Northern Ireland.
Lord Frost is seeking adjustments to the implementation of the protocol and told assembly members on Friday that it should not be looked at as a “sort of definitive text”.
DUP member Christopher Stalford, whose party is opposed to the protocol due to concerns of new trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, suggested Lord Frost had been left to “clean up the mess” of the protocol.
Mr Stalford quoted Mrs May’s former chief of staff, Lord Barwell, who last month claimed Mr Johnson’s government knew the protocol “was a bad deal” but intended to “wriggle out of it later”.
Lord Frost responded: “We intend to implement what we signed up to but it’s the fact of implementation that’s causing the problem.
“I would say that it was the inheritance that we inherited from the previous government and from the previous negotiating team that has been a significant part of the difficulty, and the reason the protocol is shaped as it is, is because we had a particular inheritance from the previous team who could not get their deal, rightly in my view, through parliament.
“Unfortunately we were not able to go back to scratch and do things in a different way and I think the previous team are to a very large degree responsible for some of the infelicities in this protocol and the Withdrawal Agreement that we might be better without but unfortunately we are where we are.”
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‘Northern Ireland Protocol is harmful’
Lord Frost this week announced the UK government would “set out our approach” to the protocol within the next two weeks, as he called for a “new balance” in its implementation.
He told assembly members: “It’s not reasonable to say, given that the situation has changed in various ways and given that parts of the protocol remained to be worked out, that it is a definitive text and as of October 2019 that’s it and there’s nothing more to say.”
Politics
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell tells Nigel Farage ‘kneejerk’ migrant deportation plan won’t solve problem
The Archbishop of York has told Sky News the UK should resist Reform’s “kneejerk” plan for the mass deportation of migrants, telling Nigel Farage he is not offering any “long-term solution”.
Stephen Cottrell said in an interview with Trevor Phillips he has “every sympathy” with people who are concerned about asylum seekers coming to the country illegally.
But he criticised the plan announced by Reform on Tuesday to deport 600,000 people, which would be enabled by striking deals with the Taliban and Iran, saying it will not “solve the problem”.
Mr Cottrell is currently acting head of the Church of England while a new Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen.
Pic: Jacob King/PA Wire
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell in 2020.
File pic: PA
Phillips asked him: “What’s your response to the people who are saying the policy should be ‘you land here, unlawfully, you get locked up and you get deported straight away. No ifs, no buts’?”
Mr Cottrell said he would tell them “you haven’t solved the problem”, adding: “You’ve just put it somewhere else and you’ve done nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country.
“And so if you think that’s the answer, you will discover in due course that all you have done is made the problem worse.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I have every sympathy with those who find this difficult, every sympathy – as I do with those living in poverty.
“But… we should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short term kneejerk ‘send them home’.”
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What do public make of Reform’s plans?
Nigel Farage at the launch of Reform UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers. Pic: PA
Asked if that was his message to the Reform leader, he said: “Well, it is. I mean, Mr Farage is saying the things he’s saying, but he is not offering any long-term solution to the big issues which are convulsing our world, which lead to this. And, I see no other way.”
You can watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News from 8.30am
Mr Farage, the MP for Clacton, was asked at a news conference this week what he would say if Christian leaders opposed his plan.
“Whoever the Christian leaders are at any given point in time, I think over the last decades, quite a few of them have been rather out of touch, perhaps with their own flock,” he said.
“We believe that what we’re offering is right and proper, and we believe for a political party that was founded around the slogan of family, community, country that we are doing right by all of those things, with these plans we put forward today.”
Sky News has approached Mr Farage for comment.
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