Lord Frost, the man putting Brussels on the back foot
FROM the outset of Brexit negotiations, the most risible claim going was that the EU was taking a principled stance as a champion and guarantor of peace in Northern Ireland. In fact, Brussels ruthlessly used the fact of a land border between the UK and a remaining part of the EU to put the thumbscrews on Theresa May.
Senior European Commission official Martin Selmayr reportedly remarked that Northern Ireland was “the price” Britain would have to pay for Brexit.
Until this week it was starting to look like Selmayr’s bullying forecast had come true, with exports from Britain to Northern Ireland – which effectively remains under EU single market rules – subjected to ludicrous amounts of bureaucracy.
But the promotion this week of David Frost to full Cabinet rank and his taking over responsibility for future relations with the EU from Michael Gove is a game-changer.
During four years of tortuous Brexit negotiations, Lord Frost was the one British negotiator capable of going toe to toe with the EU’s Michel Barnier and coming out ahead on points.
SO IMPLACABLE was he about not ceding ground in the talks that he earned himself the nickname “Frostie the No Man”.
When he convinced the EU that Boris Johnson really was prepared to walk away with no deal and trade on WTO terms, suddenly it was Brussels that began making concessions.
So Frost is the ideal man to call a halt to the EU’s utterly irresponsible conduct in regards to Northern Ireland.
Instead of implementing regulations with a light touch and only imposing extra hurdles on consignments of goods likely to be transited on to the Republic, Brussels has demanded even the smallest items, such as household orders for garden plants, be gone over with a fine-tooth comb.
This has led to the highly symbolic observation that British soil cannot be exported onto British soil, igniting fury in Unionist communities and bringing with it the spectre of a slide back towards the sectarian violence of yesteryear.
Last month, the EU also finally exploded the myth of it caring very much about peace by triggering the emergency Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, effectively imposing the very hard border on the island of Ireland it said it could never permit. This was done in a fit of pique to prevent the theoretical possibility of Covid vaccines being exported to the UK over the Irish border.
The Commission rowed back after a few hours, but not until it had set a precedent for there being a low threshold needed to justify invoking this power.
At the same time, it shattered any idea it could be trusted to handle the Irish situation’s complexities with maturity or good faith.
The emollient Mr Gove was too polite to make much of the episode.The famously blunt Lord
Frost won’t be.As a former CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association, Midlands-born Frost is miles away from the usual silky prowler of the corridors of power, having exposed himself to the rigours of business life and come to understand how to close a deal.
He knows the UK has the same power as the EU does to trigger Article 16 if arrangements in Northern Ireland give cause for concern.What’s more, the EU knows that he knows.
LORD Frost is also armed with a recent statement from the Prime Minister that “we will do everything we need to, whether legislatively or indeed by invoking Article 16 to ensure there is no barrier down the Irish Sea”.
Already there are signs the EU understands it has overreached and that Frost will be quite prepared to trigger Article 16, freeing-up GB-Northern Ireland trade even if that means checks on the Irish border.
On Thursday, Maros Sefcovic, the EU Commissioner responsible for the issue, put out a message on social media pledging that the EU was committed to “finding pragmatic solutions”.
Once again Brussels is on the back foot and the man who is putting it there is Frost.
During a December photocall with Mr Barnier and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, before the posttransition trade deal was struck, some observers drew unfavourable contrasts between the sleek and slim EU representatives on the one hand and the portly Lord Frost and Boris Johnson on the other.
Johnson’s hair was its usually unruly self and Frost’s suit jacket seemed to have shrunk, highlighting his short kipper tie and a tummy that could hardly be described as washboard flat. Short on style, but as it turned out, long on substance. And now the EU is richly deserving of another touch of Frost.
‘He was the one negotiator who went toe to toe with Barnier’