London must fix east-west rupture by dumping damaging mechanism: Foster DUP weighs in on legal challenge to arrangement
DUP leader Arlene Foster has urged the Government to deal with the “rupturing” of the eastwest relationship caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol.
A debate at Westminster today triggered by her party’s e-petition will ask the Government to take action to replace this “flawed and deeply damaging” protocol.
The DUP has vowed to overthrow the post-brexit trade mechanism, which has disrupted trade from Britain.
Mrs Foster said: “There is no question of the public anger towards the protocol. The petition demonstrated that.
“Brussels and London must work for a permanent solution.
Temporary measures will not work.
“The protocol is flawed and has ruptured the east-west strand of the Belfast Agreement.”
Parliament will debate the e-petition she tabled calling for the triggering of Article 16, which allows the Government to override the protocol and ensure unfettered trade from Britain.
More than 140,000 have signed the petition, with the 100,000-signature threshold for a debate surpassed in just over 24 hours.
Mrs Foster said: “The European Union and the Government must recognise that to press on with the protocol with every single unionist party opposed to it will lead to failure.
“Every agreement involving Northern Ireland has always required the consent of all sides. Consensus has been our watchword.”
The EU moved to trigger Article 16 over the distribution of vaccines but quickly reversed its decision.
Mrs Foster said: “The European Union claim their triggering of Article 16 was ‘a mistake’, but to close their eyes to unionist opposition to this protocol will be another mistake.
“The Prime Minister must work for a permanent solution before the end of the grace periods when even greater disruption will become apparent.
“There needs to be unfettered trade from GB-NI.”
DUP leader Arlene Foster and senior party MPS have thrown their weight behind legal action challenging the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The First Minister, her deputy leader Nigel Dodds, DUP Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and chief whip Sammy Wilson are joining the legal challenge begun by Belfast-born Baroness Kate Hoey, TUV leader Jim Allister and former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib.
Unless alternative post-brexit trade arrangements are put in place which secure their consent, they will launch judicial review proceedings.
Former Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin QC is providing legal representation for the group. He stood down as Attorney General in June, allowing a return to independent practice.
Mrs Foster said: “Fundamental to the Act of Union is unfettered trade throughout the UK.
“At the core of the Belfast Agreement was the principle of consent yet the Northern Ireland Protocol has driven a coach and horses through both the Act of Union and the Belfast Agreement.”
The Ulster Unionists said last night they too had joined the legal action.
UUP leader Steve Aiken said: “Testing the Northern Ireland Protocol in the courts is a fair and legitimate thing to do.
“The very cornerstone of our democracy stands on foundations based on an individual’s right to legally challenge what they believe to be unjust.” Mr Allister said: “Whereas the protocol is doing immense damage to commerce and thus our economy, it is its pernicious constitutional damage which concerns us above all.
“Extended ‘grace periods’, derogations and easements will do nothing to ameliorate the protocol’s fundamental assault on our constitutional position.
“At the heart of this challenge will be the irreconcilable conflict of the sovereignty-busting protocol with the foundational constitutional statute which bound us into the UK, the Act of Union 1800.”
The move comes amid ongoing unionist and loyalist anger at new regulatory and customs processes required to bring goods into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
Nationalists and the Irish government are committed to solving problems with the protocol keeping Northern Ireland within the EU’S single market but insist nothing must threaten the free flow of commerce on the island of Ireland.
SDLP leader and Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said: “The DUP’S legal action against the Ireland Protocol is ill-judged and will only further entrench the febrile political environment as well as creating further uncertainty for people and businesses.
“There will be few with sympathy for the argument that the protocol, which prevents a hard border in Ireland and guarantees dual market access for local businesses, breaches the Good Friday Agreement.”
It’s understood a separate group of DUP members has also engaged senior legal counsel to prepare for a series of challenges to the protocol. It has sought the legal opinion of constitutional law experts ahead of several potential High Court challenges in Belfast and London against the Government over the post-brexit Irish Sea trading arrangements.
A party source involved in the initiative said that preparatory work on a “series of very significant legal challenges” is at an “advanced stage”. The source said: “No stone will be left unturned in the pursuit of justice for the people of the Union.”
‘The DUP’S legal action against the Ireland Protocol is ill-judged’
A four-year-old girl and two adults have died in a house fire.
Police have launched an investigation following the blaze on Clayton Road in the St David’s area of Exeter during the early hours of yesterday.
Those who died were a 28-year-old woman, a 29-yearold man and a four-year-old girl.
Two boys aged four and nine, and a seven-year-old girl, were also in the house at the time of the fire and remain in hospital.
All those occupying the house were related to each other, police said.
A “critical incident” was launched following the fire at the property on Sunday.
Chief Superintendent Daniel Evans, of Devon and Cornwall
Police, said: “It has now been confirmed that two adults, a 28-year-old woman and a 29-yearold man, plus a four-year-old girl have all died following this house fire.
“Next of kin have been informed
and we will be supporting those affected with specialist officers.
“Two boys aged four and nine, and a seven-year-old girl who were also in the house at the time of the fire remain in hospital.”
He said all three were in a stable condition yesterday, and would be transferred to Bristol Children’s Hospital later.
“All six within the property are related to each other,” he added.
Mr Evans said officers were working with specialist scene investigators to establish the cause of the fire.
“Currently there is nothing to indicate any third-party involvement in this matter and therefore we are not seeking anyone in connection to this fire at this time,” he said.
Mr Evans added: “This is a deeply upsetting incident and one that will cause great distress to the community, particularly to those who knew the family.
“I ask that at this time the public give our officers space to undertake the vital investigative work at the scene over the coming days.”