Alternative proposals to replace the backstop

A UK commitment to indemnify the EU against single market infractions is among a set of alternative proposals to replace the Irish border backstop.

The plan, tabled by Northern Ireland’s Ulster Unionist Party, would also see the creation of a new offence in British law for knowingly transporting non-compliant goods to the EU.

The party has also proposed the establishment of a new cross-border body, similar to those already created by the Good Friday Agreement, to monitor and regulate trade across the frontier.

The UUP said it was putting forward the ideas in good faith, in a bid to break the impasse over the backstop.

Peer and former party leader Lord Empey, who took the lead in developing the proposals, said they represented an “Irish solution to an Irish problem”.

“What we are trying to do is to stimulate a debate,” he told the PA news agency.

“We need a solution. The roaring and shouting that has accompanied Boris Johnson’s activities in the last period doesn’t remove the need for a deal and it doesn’t remove the need for a solution to the problem.”

Lord Empey said his party recognised the right of the Irish Republic, and wider EU, to protect the integrity of the single market.

Rather than doing that through the backstop – which would see Northern Ireland remain aligned to EU regulations on goods – the UUP is suggesting that the UK offers securities to Europe that would assure the bloc it is serious about preventing infractions.

This would include the creation of an offence where those guilty of using UK territory to export non-compliant goods to the EU would be liable for prosecution.

It would also see the UK indemnify the EU against any such infractions, with the British assuming the legal responsibility for the damage.