The hon. Member for Belfast South (Claire Hanna) is a big act to follow. I rise to talk about the Lords amendments to part 5 of the Bill. Without this part of the Bill standing as it was originally intended, the United Kingdom risks being divided. We could get into a position where goods
and services from Northern Ireland are treated differently from those in the rest of our Great Britain. That cannot happen. As Conservatives, we have a manifesto commitment, barely a year old, to give Northern Ireland unfettered access to Great Britain’s markets. Article 6 of the Northern Ireland protocol also states that. The Good Friday agreement states that Northern Ireland’s constitutional status cannot be changed without the consent of both communities. Even the Acts of Union 1800 stated it.
As an MP in the north-west of England, I know that the people of Northern Ireland are closely entwined with us, both geographically and culturally. It is a short ferry ride or a quick hop on a plane, and barely a street, let alone a community, does not have someone with an Irish accent. They are not separate; they are part of a wonderful whole, and for artificial lines to be drawn across our shared sea is unconscionable. For a business in Northern Ireland to have customs checks for its products, or to be treated differently, is not something I would propose, consider, or support.
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We need a safety net. For example, the best cake makers in Northern Ireland must be able to source Welsh ingredients, ship them across the Irish sea from an English port, and return their delicious wares to the tables of Glasgow and London, without reams of paperwork, extra charges, or big delays. The measures in the Bill ensure that it will be illegal to introduce new checks on goods and services that have been brought about by rules created outside our proud Union, and rightly so. We are not being obdurate; we have agreed some checks that are reasonable and deliver on our commitment to ensure that phytosanitary checks are put in place. We have built centres by ports, as we should, to ensure that crop and animal disease cannot spread.
The Bill eliminates the possibility of external rules and controls being used to damage UK business. There is a risk that article 10 of the Northern Ireland protocol, agreed with the EU, could be used to take a nit-picky view to the approach of state aid. For example, should one of Lancashire’s fine manufacturing businesses need a bit of financial help to restructure and then sell its big shiny products or machines to a firm in Northern Ireland, without those changes, or an agreement that makes the provision defunct, it would be possible for the EU to claim that that breaks the rules. Nonsense! That would be overreach on a grand scale, and the Bill, unamended, prevents such problems before they manifest.
Finally, the Bill ensures that the Parliament of the United Kingdom has a vote, as it should. Before any powers in the Bill can come into force, they must be agreed in this House by a vote on behalf of all the people of these lands. An agreement with our friends, should we not need these provisions, would be wonderful—we will have an agreement and they can be removed. Altogether, that is enough for me to support the Bill, and I will be voting for it tonight.