PM Truss has created ‘such havoc so quickly’

I had no vote, but of the final two Tory leadership candidates I preferred Liz Truss to Rishi Sunak because it seemed more likely that she would sort out the Northern Ireland protocol.

I had concerns about her economic philosophy, but I never imagined that she would create such havoc so quickly. Far worse, perhaps we can all agree, than any minor adverse effects of Brexit.

But she has indeed pushed ahead with her Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which is passing through the House of Lords; unfortunately the EU has also been working on its own plans, for reprisals.

It is now fifteen months since July 2021 when a Command Paper mooted that we could unilaterally pass new laws to help protect the EU Single Market, but nothing has been done about that.

Consequently it is the EU which has been allowed to seize the moral high ground and publicly condemn the UK for actual and planned breaches of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Yet it would be easy for the Government to pass an order under Section 12 of the Export Control Act 2002, imposing export controls on all goods crossing the land border into the Irish Republic.

The Department for International Trade already includes an Export Control Joint Unit, the remit of which could easily be extended to cover regulation of the carriage of goods across the Irish border.

Indeed it could have been done long ago, when this relatively minor problem surfaced, as suggested in a letter headed ‘Easy solution to EU border conundrum’ printed here on February 22, 2018.

Dr D R COOPER Belmont Park Avenue

Maidenhead