DUP and TUV battle over the truth about the Irish Sea border

The North Antrim MP’s comments come after interim leader Gavin Robinson said this week that the border – as he defines it – will be gone by autumn as part of his party’s deal.

Mr Robinson also questioned how the sea border is defined – with the DUP’s position in essence being that the green lane represents the UK internal market – and a removal of checks removes the border. However, critics don’t accept that, given the red lane acts as the default route for goods entering Northern Ireland, unless companies have signed up to special arrangements.

A fundamental issue the party faces is that the regulatory border remains – with the UK split into two zones. There are increasing concerns about issues like new EU and UK carbon taxes either leaving Northern Ireland in limbo, or facing increased barriers with the rest of the country.

The DUP’s deal focuses on the operation of the green lane, and the government promise to remove checks. However, it doesn’t remove the regulatory frontier – which leaves NI highly susceptible to any divergence between the UK and EU – as the province will have to follow the EU.

The DUP argue that checks will be removed in autumn – in line with the Safeguarding the Union pledge to “remove checks when goods move within the UK internal market system”. But the UK-EU protocol deal which put the border in place legally requires 5% checks on the green lane – something a government official described to parliament as a “fundamental underpinning” of the arrangements.

Speaking to Joel Taggart on BBC Radio Ulster on Wednesday, Mr Paisley said the deal was a “work in progress” and he is working to overturn some of the “great iniquity that has been inflicted upon us”. He said that progress was being made on issues such as veterinary medicines.

Asked if the Safeguarding the Union deal was oversold, Mr Paisley said “I think Gavin has created significant space for the party to tell the story properly, and allow for those of us who probably felt that there was a degree of spin in all of this. We’re back to a solid basis of truth. The public out there want one thing from their politicians and that’s truth – and I believe that they’re getting that”.

He said he told Sir Jeffrey Donaldson that it was important that the truth was told about the deal.

“We have got a number of commitments from the government. There’s already a number of statutory instruments put in place. The outworking of them is now important, and the timeframe for them working out – I think Gavin has already indicated that is not weeks but probably months to implementation”.

The UK government can theoretically stop EU law – but Brussels reserves the right to take ‘appropriate remedial measures’. Given that the purpose of the entire deal is to protect the EU single market’s integrity – it seems unlikely that it wouldn’t.

TUV treasurer Timothy Gaston said: “The idea that the DUP are going to get any movement on the Protocol having surrendered what leverage they had by returning to Stormont as Protocol implementors is for the birds.

“As for the DUP now telling the truth on the Sea Border, that too is nonsense. We have merely moved from Sir Jeffery telling us that the sea border is gone to Gavin Robinson telling us that the sea border is going in October.

“Neither claim is correct. The customs border on the basis of EU law declaring GB as a foreign country and NI as EU territory remains. Northern Ireland, colony like, remains subject to foreign laws we don’t make and can’t change. Our entire goods economy is governed by these foreign EU laws (and court), identical to those prevailing in ROI. That foundational cornerstone of the Union, Article 6 of the Acts of Union, remains in suspension because of the Protocol.

“Unless or until the DUP face up to those realities they cannot claim to be telling the truth about the deal which saw them return to being Protocol implementors”.