Scrap Northern Ireland Brexit checks, Eurosceptics tell Johnson
‘Mutual enforcement gives both sides what they need without infringing the sovereignty of either party’
THE Northern Ireland Protocol must be abolished rather than tweaked, the European Research Group will urge the Government today.
The hardline Tory Brexiteers will publish a report, seen by The Daily Telegraph, urging Boris Johnson to overhaul the protocol rather than work with the European Union to amend it.
It comes amid an outcry over bureaucracy and checks, required under the arrangement, hampering the flow of goods to Northern Ireland from Great
Britain. The protocol was established to smooth trade friction arising from Northern Ireland remaining inside the UK internal market while continuing to apply some EU rules.
The Brexiteer MPS propose replacing it with a “mutual enforcement” arrangement, in which the UK and EU would agree to enforce one another’s rules.
This would involve the UK applying EU customs regulations in Northern Ireland, undertaking checks “at source” in warehouses and factories instead of at a border.
The 38-page ERG report comes after Michael Gove and Maros Sefcovic, the
European Commission vice-president, last night issued a joint statement declaring the UK and the EU’S “full commitment” to “the proper implementation of the protocol”.
They acknowledged “joint action” was needed to make it work, but their declaration of support disappointed Tory Eurosceptics and unionists.
A UK Government source was also downbeat on the prospect of a breakthrough over the issues surrounding the protocol, conceding “there was no real progress” in the meeting between Mr Gove and Mr Sefcovic.
The source added there “seems to be a lack of understanding on the EU side” of the situation on the ground in Northern Ireland and how the protocol is affecting people’s everyday lives there.
It appeared Mr Sefcovic had “not been given any political room for manoeuvre” by hardliners in the Commission and member states, the source added, saying the bloc appeared to have forgotten its aborted move to trigger Article 16 of the protocol last month.
The ERG, which boasts more than 50 MP supporters, called in senior Brexiteer lawyers Martin Howe QC, Barnabas Reynolds and James Webber to help draft its report.
Their publication, Re-uniting the Kingdom: How and why to replace the Northern Ireland Protocol, argues that the mechanism has “had a profound and negative effect” on the UK’S internal market, as well as the constitutional position of Northern Ireland.
It sees the ERG formally join the growing chorus of opposition to the protocol, which has been led by the Democratic Unionist Party and other unionists, who insist it is unworkable.
Mark Francois, ERG chairman, told The Telegraph: “As this report makes crystal clear, from the viewpoint of the ERG, the protocol has to go. We’ve recommended an alternative called mutual enforcement which gives both sides what they need without infringing the sovereignty of either party.”
He added: “We very much hope that just as the EU swore blind they would never abandon the backstop and then did so, they may yet abandon their adherence to the protocol as well.”