My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my noble and honourable friend Lord Hain, who is instructive in this regard as a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and who has quite clearly shown the need for these amendments as safeguards to protect the Good Friday agreement and the withdrawal agreement, with direct reference to the Northern Ireland/Ireland protocol.
As somebody who grew up in Northern Ireland and comes from a democratic nationalist tradition but seeks reconciliation with my unionist neighbours, I am in absolutely no doubt that the Bill as currently drafted in terms of trade could cause innumerable problems for north-south co-operation, east-west co-operation between Ireland and Britain, and internal co-operation in terms of the need to build relations between unionists and nationalists—the very thing that the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, as an international treaty, sought to address.
As the noble Lord, Lord Hain, has referred to, in that regard we had the support of the European Union, underscored by peace funds underscored by the United States of America. It is significant that the front runner and others, such as the US envoy to Northern Ireland, have quite clearly stated that this current Bill, with the fracturing of the agreement and the fracturing of the Northern Ireland protocol, could imperil the Good Friday agreement and imperil those relationships. They would not countenance, at this stage, the Bill remaining in its current form, with particular reference to Part 5 on a trade deal with the UK. That is a particular warning signal from one of the biggest Administrations in our global world.
These amendments focus on the need to ensure that the provisions of the Bill cannot be enacted unless they are compliant with the Good Friday/Belfast agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol—and, as my noble friend Lord Hain said, they do provide that necessary safeguard and protection.
Amendment 3 seeks to ensure that the “UK Market Access: Goods” section—Part 1—will have effect only when the UK is fully compliant with the terms regarding the UK internal market set out in the Northern Ireland protocol and the terms of the Good Friday agreement that are relevant to the UK internal market.
Amendment 157 requests the insertion of a clause specifically about the Good Friday agreement to
“address the unique political circumstances on the island of Ireland … maintain the necessary conditions for continued North-South cooperation … avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland”—
which is what the Northern Ireland protocol was designed to do, and which is clearly and specifically referred to in the withdrawal agreement that was signed by the Prime Minister last year with the European Union—and
“support, protect or implement the 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement”
in so far as it is relevant to the UK internal market.
Amendment 177 is quite instructive, in that it states in the rubric explanatory section:
“No provisions of this Act come into force unless the United Kingdom is … fully in compliance with … the Northern Ireland Protocol … and … the terms of the Good Friday Agreement which are relevant to the United Kingdom internal market.”
Each of these amendments builds on the others, stressing the importance of the Belfast agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol to British-Irish relations and underscoring the bipartisan approach between Britain and Ireland that I have already referred to. In fact, the protocol stresses the essential elements of strands 2 and 3 of the Belfast agreement in respect of north-south economic co-operation and British-Irish relations. So it is important: we need to utilise the machinery of the Good Friday agreement to develop such relations as the North/South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council.
It does sadden me that the Government insist that they are trying to protect the Good Friday agreement. Nothing could be further from the truth, because in actual fact, through this United Kingdom Internal Market Bill, the Government are quite specifically fracturing that agreement and fracturing the withdrawal agreement that they signed up to this time last year.
The European Union Committee report, which was published some 14 days ago, has also been particularly instructive in relation to this issue. The committee states that there has been an “inherent tension” at the heart of the Northern Ireland protocol from the outset, due to the divergent expectations of the two parties: for the Government, it is
“maintaining the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom, and its internal market”
and for the EU it is
“to maintain the integrity of the Single Market and the customs union.”
Originally, the idea was to negotiate, in good faith, a pragmatic compromise, providing proportionate safeguards to protect the 1998 Good Friday agreement in all its dimensions. The Lords European Union Committee argues that, instead, the Bill elevates one element—the integrity of the UK internal market—above the others. That is the danger with this particular Bill.
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The EU Committee further illustrates an important point, and hence the need for these amendments to be accepted by the Government. If they are not, I hope that my noble friend Lord Hain will pursue these on Report and that in his discussions with the usual channels, he will press them to a vote. These amendments would secure that those important, interlocking relationships were respected and honoured.
The EU Committee further states:
“By focusing solely on Northern Ireland’s relationship with the rest of the UK, the Bill fails to reflect that balance, and … it could pose a threat not just to the Withdrawal Agreement (including the Protocol on Ireland/ Northern Ireland), but to the maintenance of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.”
This point has already been referred to by the Anglican Church hierarchy’s letter of last week to the Financial Times, which was addressed by the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury last week. The letter states:
“The UK negotiated the Northern Ireland Protocol with the EU to ‘protect the 1998 Agreement in all its dimensions.’”
It then talks about breaking the protocol, as well as breaching a fundamental tenet of the Good Friday agreement by limiting the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights in Northern Ireland law, as has already been referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Hain. This will be dealt with in greater depth in Amendment 161 in Part 5 of the Bill, whenever it is discussed next week in Committee, because the principle of reconciliation is fractured by the Government through the contents of this Bill.
Put simply: in urging support for these amendments, I again reiterate my statement of last week on Second Reading that, in the process of the contents of this Bill,
“the Government managed to set the nationalist and unionist communities against each other and undermine relations with Dublin”—
where there was a bipartisan approach—
“by leaving the possibility of a hard border on the island of Ireland on the table for so long.”—[Official Report, 19/10/20; col. 1382.]
There is an urgent need to remove the inherent illegality in this Bill and the threat to peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland. These amendments
seek to ensure that that peace is protected, that the Good Friday agreement is protected, that the protocol is protected and that that is placed on the face of the Bill.