MPs approve Northern Ireland power-sharing deal

Published

5 months ago

February 1, 2024

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MPs have approved the government’s plan to revive the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland, despite some unhappiness from unionists in Westminster.

The Commons passed the necessary legislation on Thursday afternoon to approve the fresh post-Brexit trading arrangements, and it will now head to the Lords for its final sign off.

The government’s deal to remove routine checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland has won widespread applause and is set to herald the return of Stormont following a two-year hiatus.

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As a result, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has written to the Speaker of the Stormont Assembly to confirm the conditions now exist for the return of the power-sharing executive.

He has also indicated he expects the Assembly to sit on Saturday.

The deal – reached after intense talks with the DUP which collapsed the Northern Ireland Assembly in protest at the prime minister’s Windsor Framework – will also mean the Withdrawal Act is amended so EU law will no longer apply automatically in Northern Ireland.

Thursday’s sign off came after the government fast-tracked two pieces of domestic legislation in parliament giving effect to the commitments made in its Safeguarding The Union command paper published on Wednesday.

Sir Jeffrey told the Commons that Northern Ireland had been “placed in a situation where we were separated from the rest of the United Kingdom in key elements of the benefits that ought to have flown from Brexit”, and he saw it as his mission to “repair the damage”.

But with the new agreement, he said his party had secured “real changes” to post-Brexit trade across the Irish Sea.

However, while Sir Jeffrey and other parties welcomed the deal, some other unionist politicians raised concerns.

Former DUP leader Lord Dodds told peers they needed to “realise that there are still many unionists who are deeply worried and concerned that the Irish Sea border… still exists, since many goods coming from Great Britain, British goods coming to Northern Ireland, especially in manufacturing, still need to go through full EU compliance checks, procedures”.

He added there were also worries about “the continued sovereignty, jurisdiction and application of EU laws over large swathes of our economy in 300 areas, to which the Stormont brake doesn’t apply and we cannot make or amend laws within those areas”.

“These are fundamentally important constitutional and economic issues and many unionists still are concerned about these issues,” said Lord Dodds.

Over in the Commons, Sammy Wilson, the DUP MP for East Antrim, said it would still leave EU border posts in Northern Ireland – something that has been disputed.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Mr Wilson branded the government “spineless, weak-kneed and ‘Brexit-betraying'”.

And he again raised concerns in today’s debate, claiming some good would still face unnecessary checks.

But Northern Ireland minister – and former leading Brexiteer – Steve Baker rejected his assessment, saying: “We have had eight years of drama.

“For us to arrive at this moment where we have reduced EU law to this extent, and where we have put in place a red lane to protect the legitimate interests of Ireland and the EU, that is something we should all be very proud of after everything we’ve faced and all of the risks that could have put us in a far, far worse position.”

Sir Jeffrey added: “It is work in progress. I do not stand here this afternoon and pretend that we have completed the task.

“I recognise that there are ongoing concerns about how these new arrangements will work in practice. And it will be our task to hold the government to account on its commitments.”

Veteran Tory Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash also raised concerns about “issuing orders from Westminster to Northern Ireland if the people don’t want it”.

And on the other side of the debate, the leader of the SDLP, Colum Eastwood, said his party didn’t support the plan as it was “undermining north-south cooperation” on the island of Ireland, and was “far too much focused on east-west”.

He told MPs: “Moving on from this point, we need to ensure that any future negotiation is done with all parties and both governments so everybody can feel comfortable with the result.”

Sir Jeffrey said “detractors” of the deal had been “very vocal”, but added: “We have restored Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom’s internal market.”

Despite the concerns raised, the plan was passed in the Commons without MPs calling for a vote – known as going through “on the nod”.

Politics

Reform candidate resigns over ‘unacceptable’ social media comments

Published

3 hours ago

June 17, 2024

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Reform candidate resigns over 'unacceptable' social media comments

The Reform Party has accepted the resignation of one of its election candidates after “unacceptable” historical social media comments came to light.

Grant StClair-Armstrong, who was standing in Saffron Walden, the Essex constituency where Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch was the most recent MP, tendered his resignation following reports in The Times that he had previously called on people to vote for the British National Party (BNP).

The newspaper reported that StClair-Armstrong posted a blog in 2010 in which he said: “I could weep now, every time I pick up a British newspaper and read the latest about the state of the UK. No doubt, Enoch Powell would be doing the same if he was alive. My solution … vote BNP!”

When The Times contacted Mr StClair-Armstrong about the comments, he said he had “no excuses”.

“I’ve got no excuses for that,” he said. “I think they’re a disgusting party. I don’t like the English Defence League. I don’t like them.”

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The former candidate also said he would hand in his resignation, adding: “I don’t really see any alternative.”

A spokesperson for Reform told Sky News: “Mr StClair-Armstrong has tendered his resignation as a member of Reform UK due to the revelation of unacceptable historic social media comments and we have accepted his resignation.”

His resignation comes just a day before Nigel Farage is due to launch the party’s policies in South Wales on Monday afternoon.

Last week another Reform candidate apologised for an old internet post which said Britain should have “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality” instead of fighting the Nazis in the Second World War.

Ian Gribbin, who is standing in the East Sussex seat of Bexhill and Battle, told Sky News that he apologised and withdrew the comments “unreservedly”.

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He added that he was “upset” at how they had been “taken out of context”, saying his mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish people who fled persecution.

Rishi Sunak surprised his opponents when he called an election for 4 July, having previously hinted it would take place later in the autumn.

Responding to Mr Gribbin’s case at the time, Mr Farage said his party “ran out of time” to properly vet candidates.

The Reform leader claimed all parties “will suffer” from selection controversies because of the speed at which they had to pick people after the election was called.

The candidates standing in Saffron Walden are:

Conservatives – Kemi Badenoch
Independent – Erik Bonino
Green Party – Edward Gildea
Independent – Andrew David Green
Independent – Niko Omilana
Liberal Democrats – Smita Rajesh
Labour Party – Issy Waite
Reform – TBC

The candidates standing in Bexhill and Battle are:

Independent – Abul Azad
Labour – Christine Bayliss
Reform UK – Ian Gribbin
Independent Network – Nigel Jacklin
Liberal Democrat – Becky Jones
Green Party – Jonathan Kent
Party of Women – Julia Long
Conservative – Kieran Mullan
Independent – Jeff Newman
UK Independence Party – Colin Sullivan

Politics

SEC shoots down Ripple’s argument for a lower penalty

Published

7 hours ago

June 17, 2024

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SEC shoots down Ripple’s argument for a lower penalty

The SEC argued Ripple’s proposed lower civil penalty wouldn’t be enough, and there’s no comparison to its settlement with Terraform Labs.

Politics

Nigel Farage to launch ‘contract with the people’ in Wales following poll boosts

Published

9 hours ago

June 17, 2024

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Nigel Farage to launch 'contract with the people' in Wales following poll boosts

Nigel Farage will kick off Reform UK’s policies in South Wales on Monday, where he is poised to put pressure on the Tories over immigration and tax.

The Reform leader will launch his party’s “contract with the people” – which they will not call a manifesto – in Merthyr Tydfil to highlight “what happens to a country when Labour is in charge”.

The Senedd in Cardiff is the devolved legislature of Wales and is currently run by a Labour-administration.

The launch will follow a productive few days for Reform that saw his party overtake the Conservatives for the first time – prompting Mr Farage to declare his party the “opposition” to Labour.

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His fortunes increased further after another poll by Survation for The Sunday Times showed the Tories could be reduced to just 72 seats in the next parliament, while a separate survey by Savanta for The Sunday Telegraph showed Reform up another three points.

Reform has consistently pushed the Conservatives to adopt a more hardline stance on immigration and tax cuts.

In a flavour of the policies that will be unveiled tomorrow, the party said earlier this month that it would like to see a tax on businesses who employ overseas workers.

This would see firms pay a higher 20% rate of national insurance for foreign workers, up from the current 13.8%.

Reform is also opposed to Labour’s plans to end private school tax exemptions, and wants the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, overseen by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, in order to use offshore processing centres for illegal immigrants and prevent them from claiming asylum.

Some Tory candidates and former MPs on the right of the party have been agitating for Mr Sunak to advocate for an exit from the ECHR – something he has been reluctant to do but has left the door open to.

Other Reform policies include offering vouchers to go private if you can’t see a GP in three days, scrapping interest on student loans, increasing police numbers, keeping “woke ideologies out of the classroom”, abolishing the TV licence fee, reforming the Lords and reducing “wasteful spending”.

Mr Farage used an article in The Sunday Telegraph to criticise Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, for an interview he gave to The Times on Friday in which he urged voters to reject the Reform leader’s “inflammatory language” and “dog whistle” politics.

In response, Mr Farage wrote: “If Lord Cameron is worried about damaging divisions, he should look a bit closer to home.

“The terminally divided Tory party has proved itself incapable of effective government over the past 14 years – and is set to be even more hopelessly split in opposition, after it gets hammered on 4 July.”

The Reform leader will also turn his fire on Labour, saying he had chosen Wales to launch his “contract with the people” “because it shows everyone exactly what happens to a country when Labour is in charge”.

“Schools are worse than in England, NHS waiting lists are longer than in England, COVID restrictions were even tighter than in England and now Welsh motorists are being soaked by literally hundreds of speed cameras to enforce the deeply unpopular new 20mph blanket speed limit in towns and villages,” he said.

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“Meanwhile, the Tories have been the official opposition almost solidly since 2016 and have achieved zilch, which probably explains why we are neck-and-neck with them in the polls in Wales.

“So, if you want a picture of what the whole country will be like with a Starmer government and a feeble Conservative opposition, come to Wales and then hear us unveil a better future for all of Britain”.

Rishi Sunak has repeatedly said a vote for Mr Farage’s party amounted to handing a “blank cheque” to Labour, whom the polls predict will form the next government from 4 July.

The full list of candidates standing in Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare are: