Windsor deal an opaque mess, says Democratic Unionist Party leader

The rules governing the operation of the Windsor Framework are “ineffective, opaque and overly bureaucratic” and give Northern Ireland’s politicians little opportunity to influence decisions, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson has said.

Speaking to the House of Lords Northern Ireland scrutiny committee in Westminster, the DUP leader was scathing of the agreement reached between the European Union and the United Kingdom in February 2023.

It amended the previously agreed Northern Ireland Protocol and governs post-Brexit trading rules, though unionists complain bitterly that many British companies will no longer sell products to Northern Ireland customers because of the extra rules.

Speaking of an announcement expected on Thursday about the availability of veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland, Mr Robinson said the current strategy being followed by the British government made little sense.

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British prime minister Keir Starmer has already made clear he will keep rules governing food and animal security in line with European Union rules, which should mean no extra curbs on the drugs available to Northern farmers.

“We know what the direction of travel will be, even if we do not like it,” said Mr Robinson, yet London’s actions will ensure that some drugs will not be sold in Northern Ireland for a year, or more, even though they meet all safety standards.

Telling peers that he does not “have a lot of faith” in the Windsor deal, Mr Robinson said it frustrates “the ability for ordinary, routine and at times complex and serious engagement to either satisfy, resolve or ameliorate” some of its harmful effects.

It could not ever be effective until the imposition of European Union rules “without the consent of any elected unionist in Northern Ireland, without the consent of party colleagues in Westminster” was resolved, he went on.

The House of Lords committee, chaired by the cross-bench peer Lord Carlile, has been holding a series of hearings to investigate in detail the operation of the framework agreement.

Meanwhile, an independent report on the operation of the Windsor deal from the former Labour Northern Ireland Secretary of State Paul Murphy, which was started following a Stormont Assembly vote in January, is set to finish shortly, the meeting heard.

Lord Murphy has been tasked with examining the effect it has had on social, economic and political life in Northern Ireland, and on the United Kingdom’s internal market, and to make recommendations.

While paying a personal tribute to the former Labour secretary of state, the DUP leader, however, questioned his independence, saying he is required to advance only ideas that have cross-community backing in Stormont.

However, the SDLP’s Stormont leader of the Opposition, Matt O’Toole, questioned the value of some of the measures that were taken to coax the DUP back into Stormont government last year.

One of them, the East-West Council, designed to improve connections between different parts of the UK, could not be put at the same rank as the institutions created under the Belfast Agreement, he said.