My Lords, this debate illustrates one of the issues deeply affecting Northern Ireland politics: trust and agreements. Noble Lords have talked about agreements entered into and then broken. One of the problems that exists for unionists at the moment in Northern Ireland is that so many promises and pledges have been made but have not been fulfilled. I referred in the earlier debate to the provisions of Article 50 and the joint report published on 8 December 2017, a commitment entered into by both the European Union and the UK Government. The noble Lord, Lord Caine, was present for some of the discussions we had with Theresa May in Downing Street when this matter was discussed. Provisions were inserted, and this was agreed by the European Union and the UK Government: no regulatory difference would exist unless by the express agreement of the Assembly and the Executive. That was ditched.
This has led to a situation—and this is just one example—where unionists now feel that their voice is not listened to and that commitments entered into are not accepted or followed through. This has led to a hardening of views across unionism generally, resulting in people now saying, “We need to see the colour of people’s money and actual delivery, not promises”. I listened with great interest to Steve Baker the other day, who said, “You know, unionists should choke down their concerns; they can count on us”. I have the
greatest respect for Steve Baker and others in the Government, but quite frankly the days of counting on others and taking people’s word for it—even when international agreements are set aside during negotiations —have unfortunately gone.
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We have a situation where powers are given to the Northern Ireland Assembly under the Belfast agreement, and then that is set aside at the whim of the Government of the day and Parliament accedes to that. Look at the situation regarding the legislation on the Irish language that the noble Lord, Lord Bew, referred to in the earlier debate: that is a matter for the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is a devolved matter which has been taken over by this House and imposed on Northern Ireland—as have abortion laws, which the Northern Ireland Assembly has never agreed on, again at the behest of a majority here in this House; I accept that. That was done against the principle of the Belfast agreement and the consent principles therein.
We are now told that Article 16 is the way forward if there is a problem; that Article 16 is what we should rely on; that we should take comfort in Article 16. I am looking at an article published on 11 November in the Irish Examiner:
“The UK Labour Party has warned the British Government against invoking Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, saying that it would provoke ‘further poisonous instability’.”
That was about a year ago. At that time, the Government were looking at solutions within the context of the protocol, but that was derided and opposed.
Emily Thornberry, on 29 September 2021, said that it would be profoundly tragic if the Government moved to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol. She went on at length to say that the Government must step back from the brink and that it would have devasting consequences. On 11 May this year, Labour said that scrapping the Northern Ireland protocol would make the UK a pariah. Steve Reed, the then shadow Justice Secretary, said that triggering Article 16 to suspend the deal would make the UK a pariah. Nicola Sturgeon said that the UK should never trigger Article 16 as it would do tremendous damage.
There are other quotes that I could use, but I cite these as an illustration of the fact that unionists are told to be reasonable, to take things on trust and that we should move forward with negotiations, but time and time again the goalposts keep changing. They have changed on the basis of devolution itself and of the negotiations that were to take place on Brexit, and in the joint report and the commitments that were given in it, and now we are told, “Don’t go ahead with the Bill; rely on Article 16”. Yet when you examine its history, it is clear that that was seen as unacceptable.
What reliance have we without this Bill and its provisions that people would not revert to that? We must have legislation to copper-fasten some of these issues.