My Lords, Amendment 44A, in my name and the name of my noble friend Lord Murphy, deals specifically with the Northern Ireland situation. The noble Baroness, Lady Suttie, raised this in Committee, eight or nine days ago.
The basic purpose of this amendment is to seek to delete paragraphs 7 to 9 of Schedule 8. This would ensure that all EU citizens lawfully resident in Northern Ireland can continue to stand as candidates and vote in district council elections there. Obviously, this does not apply to British and Irish citizens; however, it does apply to other EU citizens who have arrived to reside in Northern Ireland since January 2021 and whose country does not have a reciprocal agreement with the UK.
This is reminiscent of the “I” voter situation in Northern Ireland which was removed by the Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989 when universal franchise was granted in Northern Ireland. This particular set of amendments deals with this important democratic issue of the extension of the franchise to all and ensures that this important principle is adhered to.
I would gently say to the Minister that elections and the right to exercise one’s franchise in Northern Ireland are emotive issues. The Government should not go down the road of creating problems with other EU nationals. In many ways, this would recreate a border again on the island of Ireland. It is highly emotive and politically charged, as it deals with EU citizens and excludes them from the right that they had to vote and to stand in council elections.
As a Minister in the Northern Ireland Office in 1998, my noble friend Lord Murphy was one of the principal negotiators in ensuring that both the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission were set up under the Good Friday agreement. Under the Northern Ireland protocol as negotiated by the UK Government with the EU, both commissions were given responsibility for—shall we say—managing Article 2 of the protocol, which deals with the rights of individuals. Article 2 states that there must be no diminution of rights, safeguards and equality of opportunity provisions, as set out in the Good Friday agreement, resulting from the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
If passed into law, this provision in the Bill will create two new types of EU citizenship for the purposes of UK election law—a qualifying EU citizen and an EU citizen with retained rights—in addition to a category of EU citizens who do not fall into either of these categories.
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The rights of EU citizens to vote in local council elections in Northern Ireland were underpinned by EU law up to the end of the transition period. Both commissions and the protocol committee of your Lordships’ House, of which I am a member, wrote separate letters to Northern Ireland Office Minister Conor Burns, who replied in identical form to both. He did not set out the Government’s full assessment of the relevant provisions of the Bill in the context of their conformity with the Government’s commitments under Article 2.1 of the protocol.
I urge the Minister to do whatever he can to ensure that the UK Government, via the Northern Ireland Office or the Cabinet Office, meet the Human Rights Commission and that the Northern Ireland Executive, who have responsibility and to whom the Equality Commission is accountable, meet them on a joint basis to discuss this issue and the requirements under Article 2.1 dealing with rights. I also urge that these provisions are withdrawn to prevent any further discrimination in relation to those issues. My two asks are ministerial meetings with the Equality Commission and the Human Rights Commission; and the withdrawal of these provisions as they are simply discriminatory, anti-franchise and anti-democratic.