I voted for Brexit and I believe in Brexit, because it offers vast opportunities for families and businesses across our whole country. It gives us the freedom to do things differently and better – from regulating in new ways that drive innovation and growth, to opening up our economy to the world’s fastest growing markets and taking back control of our laws and borders.
Voting for Brexit was also about restoring the sovereignty of our United Kingdom – but the Northern Ireland Protocol has undermined that. It was created to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, while ensuring Northern Ireland’s place in our union. But it is creating serious barriers to trade within the United Kingdom, and that is unacceptable.
These barriers mean that the Protocol has understandably lost the support of the Unionist community. The crucial balance at the heart of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, which is founded on respect for the interests and identity of all communities, has been undermined. Power-sharing at Stormont has broken down – and the costs of all of this are being felt by families and businesses across Northern Ireland every single day.
I am determined to do what is necessary to put this right. Resolving this issue is fundamental to everything that I believe as a Conservative, as a Brexiteer and as a Unionist. We must make Brexit work for the whole of the UK.
So, there are three key problems we need to fix. First, we need to make sure that trade can flow freely once again within our UK internal market. Currently there is too much hassle, too much complexity and too many checks on goods. Some foods made to UK rules cannot even be sold in Northern Ireland. On Friday, I met with some of our leading supermarkets and fast-parcel operators. They described the hundreds of certificates that food retailers need for every lorry they send over – and all the added costs and complexities that families face just to send a birthday present to a loved one in Northern Ireland. All of this has got to change.
Secondly, Northern Ireland’s place in the Union must be respected. When, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I made changes to alcohol duty in Great Britain, I found it deeply frustrating that they didn’t apply to Northern Ireland. It is not just a tax issue either. Garden centres in Northern Ireland can’t stock and sell the same plants and trees as those in Great Britain. All these things are affecting the people of Northern Ireland and damaging the integrity of our precious Union.
Thirdly, and perhaps most egregious of all, the current Protocol allows the European Union to impose new laws on Northern Ireland without its people and institutions having any say at all. The existence of this democratic deficit has undermined the sovereignty of Northern Ireland and the very essence of what Brexit is about – control.
No British Prime Minister could ever sit back and just allow these problems to continue. That’s why my predecessors were right to create the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – and why I supported them in doing so.
For as long as the European Union refused to reopen negotiations on the Protocol itself, this Bill was the only way forwards. I have no doubt that it helped to create the conditions where the EU has been prepared to engage constructively.
But my predecessors were also right to say this Bill was a last resort. Like them, I have always said a negotiated solution would be a better outcome. My job is to seize this opportunity, confront the hard choices, and give everything I’ve got. And I promise you this: I won’t agree any deal which doesn’t fix the problems and deliver for Northern Ireland and our precious Union.
That is the best way to finish the job, to unleash the opportunities of Brexit for every part of our United Kingdom and, finally, to get Brexit done.
Rishi Sunak MP is the Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party
