Post-Brexit checks on goods between Britain and Northern Ireland set to end under new plans
The UK government is tabling legislation to end post-Brexit checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Significantly, the Withdrawal Act will also be amended, meaning EU law will no longer apply automatically in Northern Ireland.
The details are contained in a government document which effectively details the deal to restore power-sharing at Stormont.
The 80-page document comes in three parts: one setting out changes to the law and their impact, an annex on the constitutional context, and a second annex on additional measures to strengthen Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
Those measures include an East-West Council, a new trade body and one UK cabinet meeting in Northern Ireland annually.
The changes will have an impact on the Windsor Framework, the deal Rishi Sunak signed with the European Union.
But sources close to negotiations say they “will come as no surprise” to Brussels, which has been kept informed.
Words like “flexibility” and “pragmatism” are being used a lot by players on all sides, as well as the feeling that “conversations have produced trust”.
A Commons vote on the details contained in the legislation is expected tomorrow.
The legal changes reflect what has been described as “the democratic deficit”, giving Stormont a greater role in scrutiny.
That strengthens the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) argument for a restoration of the power-sharing government at the heart of the peace process.
The document, titled Safeguarding The Union, sets out the government’s intentions of what it wants to achieve in Northern Ireland, which has been without government since 2022.
The DUP had collapsed power-sharing at Stormont in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements, which left a trade border down the Irish Sea and additional checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Westminster has recently been locked in talks with the DUP aimed at securing the return of Stormont in exchange for addressing some of the DUP’s concerns.
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Checks between Britain & NI to end
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, it was revealed an agreement had been reached, paving the way for the assembly to get up and running again.
And following the publication of the government document, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the automatic appliance of EU laws to Northern Ireland would end.
“At the moment EU law automatically applies to Northern Ireland, whether it is a change to EU law or a new EU law,” he said.
“Under the protocol we had no say, the Assembly was not consulted on that, there was no democratic scrutiny in Northern Ireland of those laws, they just automatically applied. These new arrangements end that.”
Sir Jeffrey said Article 7A of the Withdrawal Act would be amended to “end the automatic pipeline of EU law applying to Northern Ireland”.
He said that meant Northern Ireland “will have new democratic scrutiny mechanisms in the Assembly”.
“The Assembly will be able to scrutinise any new laws that are coming forward. Assembly members will be able to say if they think that law is going to be harmful to Northern Ireland and our ability to trade, in other words, divergence.
“The Assembly will be able to say no, that law should not apply in Northern Ireland and the UK government has the right to veto that law on behalf of Northern Ireland.
“There is a new process that is being put in place that ends the dynamic alignment of EU law in Northern Ireland.”
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David Blevins live on publication of command paper
Speaking in the Commons, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the deal was the “right one for Northern Ireland and for the union”.
He said many of the announcements were due to a “significant period” of negotiations between Westminster and the DUP, as he praised Sir Jeffrey’s “determination, fortitude and tact”.
“With this package it is now time for elected representatives in Northern Ireland to come together, to end the two years of impasse and start work again in the interests of the people that elected them.”
Read more:
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Northern Ireland Assembly: What is power-sharing and why is the system used?
Responding, Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said his party would vote in favour of the government’s plans and praised the “tireless efforts” of Mr Heaton-Harris.
He also paid tribute to Sir Jeffrey’s “courageous and decisive leadership”, saying that despite facing “abuse”, he “consistently and persuasively made his case for change while always being clear that he wanted to return to government with an agreement that was acceptable to all communities”.
However, there were signs of disagreement within the DUP over the deal, with Sammy Wilson, the DUP MP for East Antrim, saying “the fact remains that in Northern Ireland, there are still EU-manned border posts being built which will create a border within our own country”.
“And when the Northern Ireland Assembly sits, ministers and Assembly members will be expected by law to adhere to and implement laws which are made in Brussels, which they have no say over, no ability to amend, no ability to stop.”
He hit out at “the spineless, weak-kneed, Brexit-betraying government” whom he accused of “refusing to take on the EU and its interference in Northern Ireland”.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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