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OUTGOING DUP LEADER Edwin Poots has said that he has received a personal assurance from the UK government that significant changes will be made to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Poots, who was forced to announce his resignation as leader last week following an internal party revolt over his decision to proceed with nominating a Stormont First Minister, predicted there would be a “significant victory” on the protocol in July.
Jeffrey Donaldson was confirmed this afternoon as the next leader of the DUP.
Brexit minister David Frost said today it is “hard to see” how the NI Protocol can survive in its current form.
The UK Government and the EU are locked in a dispute over the implementation of the protocol, the part of the Brexit divorce deal aimed at avoiding a hard border.
Under the terms of the deal, deliveries of chilled meats – including sausages and burgers – could be effectively banned from crossing the Irish Sea from Britain to Northern Ireland at the end of the month.
The UK is considering unilaterally extending the grace period covering sausage shipments, something that Brussels has warned could trigger a retaliation.
But unionists are opposed to the protocol and have repeatedly called for it to be scrapped.
In an interview with the BBC, Poots said he proceeded with the appointment of Paul Givan as First Minister last week, because he believed he could oppose the protocol more effectively with a functioning Assembly.
He said: “My focus is on the Northern Ireland Protocol because that is what makes a constitutional difference to Northern Ireland.
Yes, I have received assurances that there will be changes to the protocol and that that will be very significant, that the UK government are not going to tolerate how things are and how the EU have conducted themselves since the protocol.
When asked if he had received the assurances personally, Poots said: “Yes.”
He added: “We are looking to these changes happening in July, most likely early July.
“We believe that there is a significant victory to be won on the protocol. I will hand over at the end of June [to the new DUP leader] and hopefully most of the work will actually be achieved by that stage and we can make those gains.”
When asked what was the nature of the changes he had been promised, Poots said: “We haven’t got detail but fundamentally for me the issues that really need to be resolved are the issues around the constitution because UK lawyers argued that the Act of Union was seceded by the Withdrawal Act.
I want a very clear statement from the UK Government that that is not the case. The democratic deficit, nowhere else in the world are laws being made by 25 or 26 other countries for a country who has no say in those laws.
“How ridiculous is that, that people are signing up to an agreement which doesn’t have democracy contained in it? And then we have all of the trading issues of course, which have been highlighted over and over again. My ultimate desire is that the protocol goes in its entirety.
“We have been promised there will be a significant win on the protocol, that is what the Secretary of State [Brandon Lewis] is indicating at this stage.”
Asked about Poots’ comments, David Frost told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee: “I can’t comment on private conversations and accounts of them. But we haven’t made a secret of the fact that we find it hard to see how, as currently operated, important elements of the protocol are sustainable.
“I don’t think that’s a new judgment. We have also said that we are considering all our options, and we are doing so.
“There is a real-world timetable to things that needs to be taken into account when we do that.
“That’s where we are at the moment, we are actively considering the options to deal with a situation that is hard to see as sustainable.”
Sinn Féin north Belfast MP John Finucane said Poots had not provided any detail of the proposed changes he had been promised.
“I would be very reluctant to take what Edwin Poots has said today, I think I would want to see the detail because ultimately these are conversations between the British Government and the European Union,” Finucane said.
“It is not within the Secretary of State’s gift as to what he does with the protocol – it is an agreement his Government entered into with the European Union.”
He’s a spoofer Bill
@Eoin Fitzgerald: he believes the world is only 7000 years old,you could promice that lad anything.
@Gerry Campbell:
Heresy! He reckons it’s 6,000.
@Cosmological: nonsense, Mr poots and every other sane and reasonable person believes the world is only 4000 years old and what’s more only took 7 days to be completed
@Cosmological: apologies it it is 6000 who knew the earth was that old
@Eoin Fitzgerald: YES he is but I think he was also talking with another spoofer Frosty!
@Gerry Campbell: funny I thought they believed the world started on July 1 1690
He just set up Mr Donaldson for a downfall. Oh the irony of it. And very democratic of our unionst friends who share this island.
@Brian Shea: Good point
When the concessions don’t happen, (and they won’t, because it is not the uk’s decision) then it it Donaldson’s fault for dropping the ball that that Poot’s so generously gave him
July would happily coincide with the sectarian hate fest that is the 12 July.
Speaking of sausages, Edwin is telling porkies.
I wonder did he get anything in writing?
@Peter B: — Having things in writing from Westminster isn’t worth squat, and the only way that Johnson wouldn’t change his mind is if his Johnson was connected to the mains via an on/off switch.
@E.J. Murray: state of his hair would suggest he’s connected to the mains full time
@E.J. Murray: I reckon Johnson signs things in that disappearing ink you could buy in joke shops years ago
Poor Edwin, still believes everything that come out of Johnsons mouth.
Democracy pootsy? All nationalists 40% plus?….Most Alliance supporters (currently at 18% in polls) and a chunk of Unionists support/want the protocol….so if it’s the democratic wishes you’re so worried about Edwin….
@Austin Shields: yup – “nowhere in the world are laws being written by 25 or 26 countries for another country that has no say” – except of course in the UK where England and Wales passed Brexit laws which went against the explicit wishes of Scotland and NI. WTO also springs to mind where big countries make rules and smaller countries have little choice by to comply. NATO another example. When you make laws (like Brexit) which contravene existing international law (like the GFA) you need to compromise – which of course is a four letter word according to the DUP.
I don’t think too many will believe that
Our unionist neighbours really aren’t the brightest are they.westminister feeding them a spoon of lies again
Not sure this smells right. If he had been given these “assurances” about significant changes to the protocol then he would have used this to defend himself within his own party against being ousted by his own party last week. He would have shared this info with his DUP colleagues to say “stick with me I am getting things done”. Maybe his own party are not even convinced by these so called “assurances”
@Diaspora’d: good point
I’d get that in writing if I was you.
The only promise he got is that Christmas day is 25 December this year again hes a spoofer
Rather ominously when these changes to the protocol fall far short of their expectations it happens to coincide with the marching season. So the question must be asked – did he really get assurances of a specific kind or is he just stirring things up.
@Dara Mac Craith: He’s definitely stirring the poot, sorry pot!!
EDWIN, Certainly wasn’t a Starr………….
@Peter Bell: Edwin Starr? There’s a blast from the past!
My, my hes great, did that in a week!
This chap should just keep his mouth shut and pretend the last 6000 years were all just a bad dream.
BJ and his government agreed on the deal with Europe, now they won’t to reneges on it because the old dinosaur in northern Ireland have to have all goods searched?
Would you accept the word of BJ not likely. Remember when he visited the DUP conference a few years ago? Told a barefaced lie to them then – he is only interested in his own survival and he is under no threat at the moment. So he can sit on his hands and bide his time as PM and more or less tell the DUP to sod off.
A tory promise isn’t work the paper it’s written on
Only thing I can think of is Johnson invoking Article 16 citing Societal damage at the peak of the marching season. I genuinely wouldn’t put it past the disgusting chancer.
@Gary G: You know, that’s a very good point. Very sneaky way of doing it. If it goes that way I’ll claim I was saying that all along.
Stirring the pot for marching season. Nothing else. The Brexit Deal is how the British government will be judged on as truthful or not. We will break international law but not a lot says a minister in parliament. They mess this up and their international reputation is in pieces and it is already suffered a lot from Bojo and his troupe of performing seals.
have your say