It is an honour to follow my right hon. Friend the Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson).
There is no doubt that the Bill before us is a repair job, because Brexit was not completely done. It was not properly done in Northern Ireland, where we were left with a protocol that has caused untold problems, hence why we are back here today. People can say, “Oh, there isn’t really a problem with the protocol. Just get on with it.” However, we have now had I-don’t-know-how-many hours of debate because the protocol is not working. It has broken down and needs to be replaced, and that is the fact of the matter.
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The Opposition spokesman, the shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said that the Bill was a solution looking for a problem—I think that was how he characterised it. As funny as that may be, the protocol is a problem and it requires a solution, and we have a duty—indeed, a responsibility—to try and find that solution between us. The protocol is an example of red tape being used to tie up commerce. I will come to that point in some detail later, but the Government were warned that the protocol was going to be a problem. Indeed, the current Secretary of State for Northern Ireland left the Government on the issue—that is the fact of the matter—because it caused problems for Northern Ireland and the Union that he and I both cherish.
Of course, we were warning way back in October 2019 that the protocol would cause friction. A previous Secretary of State for Northern Ireland made it clear that there would be no friction at all and that it would be light-touch, but it has been heavy-handed and has caused problems, so today we are in a position of, “Yes, we told you so.” We now need to fix this, and I am delighted the Government are bringing forward some
measures to fix it. We will see in the round whether they do, but we have to remove the frictions on trade, which are intolerable.
The Minister said earlier that I had made a powerful point about trade. I refer to a graph put together by the haulage industry, which shows that before 2021 there were four requirements to bring goods to Northern Ireland. First, trade transportation would be agreed, standard paperwork would be issued and completed, goods would be transported from GB to Northern Ireland, and then delivery would be completed, which is essentially the same process for taking goods from Scotland to Northern Ireland or Scotland to England.
Since 2021, an additional 11 measures have been put in place, including entry summary declaration forms, simplified frontier declaration forms and movement reference numbers—the carrier then populates goods details for the GVMS, or goods vehicle movement service, and then obtains goods movement reference numbers or GMRs. Goods would then be cleared for transport to Northern Ireland. There would then have to be supplementary declarations completed and duties would be paid on the at-risk goods, alongside a whole host of other measures.
I am delighted that the Minister said that those frictions would be removed, because they need to be removed. They have added considerable costs, as the leader of my party has demonstrated on numerous occasions, not only to doing business in Northern Ireland but for consumers in Northern Ireland. This discriminates against Northern Ireland. It adds costs for everybody in Northern Ireland, it is unfair and it is against our democratic rights. It is important to put that on the record.
In moving his amendment, the hon. Member for North Down (Stephen Farry) dwelt mainly on the impact on milk. There are a considerable number of dairy farms in the North Down constituency, so I know that he will have had representations from the dairy industry, but I think it is wrong for the Alliance party in Northern Ireland to pitch this as a “them and us” argument, because it affects every single farmer in Northern Ireland, including every single dairy farmer. It will affect them in slightly different ways, given how they have calibrated their businesses and which area they wish to trade in, but this should not be turned into a zero-sum game. I thought it was unfair of the Member for the Alliance party to parade Mike Johnston out as someone from the dairy sector who supports his point of view and not someone who supports our point of view. It is grossly unfair to characterise Mike Johnston in that way, because he is an absolutely honourable, decent gentleman, and he will tell hon. Members that the current protocol is not the answer to the problems either.