The Government's New EU Deal Is A Huge Mistake

'A foreign power will have access to sensitive economic and commercial British information.'

Stuart Mitchell/@IncMonocle

Boris Johnson’s Brexit Deal did what he had first described as unconscionable; it partitioned the UK with a border down the Irish Sea, leaving Northern Ireland in the EU. The union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was broken and, with it, our country.

He, like his successors, promised to put right his mistake but all they have done is cement it in. In the process hitherto unimaginable constitutional harm has been done to the UK.

They have beguiled us with rhetoric but done nothing of substance.

First came the Internal Market Bill in late 2020. Johnson said it was necessary to counter the damage to the fabric of our country being caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol. He dropped that bill faster than the time it took to introduce it.

Then came the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU – Johnson’s self-proclaimed first-class trade deal. He told us its terms would be used as the way to resolve the Protocol but there is not even a mention of the Protocol in its 1,249 long pages.

Hot on the heels of the TCA came talk of the Conservative Government finally invoking Article 16 (of the Protocol) to suspend it given the damage it was doing. Well, that was 2021 – no one even mentions Article 16 any longer. It has not been invoked!

The biggest sleight of hand was perhaps the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. It numbers 26 clauses, 20 of which say all the right things about taking NI back into union with Great Britain. But then you get to clause 26 and it states NONE of the first 20 clauses have any legal effect and would not do so until further legislation is passed. The bill is subterfuge at a Parliamentary level.

Now we know for sure HMG has no intention whatsoever of doing anything other than implementing the Protocol in full, albeit with some sticky plaster to hide (not cure) the massive break it has created in our sovereignty.

We know this from the deal done this week between Maros Sefcovic and James Cleverly, giving the EU access to British IT systems. The EU will now be able to delve deep into information on trade within the UK. A foreign power will have access to sensitive economic and commercial British information.

The EU claim this is necessary to police our compliance with the Protocol. That we have granted it reveals HMG’s commitment to the Protocol and our political class’s preparedness to take the knee to the EU.

There is no reciprocity in the IT Deal. We will not have access to EU IT systems, even though the EU will be sending goods into Northern Ireland.

Without doubt the information the EU will gain will be used to the detriment of British and advantage of the Republic’s and EU’s commercial interests. It will speed up the economic capture of Northern Ireland by the Republic.

The damage done by this Tory Government to our economy, our health service and the public sector at large is vast. But we should recover from those over time. We will not recover from their breaking up the United Kingdom.