“Give us our country back,” says parliamentary coalition of Unionist, Reform, Tory, and Labour
Reform’s Nigel Farage, the Tories’ Iain Duncan Smith, Labour’s Graham Stringer, and Unionists unite
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024
No country in the World would accept the annexation of part of its territory by a foreign power.
Yet that’s exactly what the British Government did, and now it must be put right, says TUV Leader Jim Allister
Yesterday in Parliament the Leader of the TUV Party, Jim Allister KC MP, presented a Bill to restore the sovereignty of the entirety of the United Kingdom, following the effective annexation of a part of the UK’s territory by a foreign power – the European Union – in 2019.
A country which surrenders part of its territory and 1.9 million of its people to the laws of a foreign power can no longer be deemed a country, according to the United Nations definition. Yet this is precisely what the United Kingdom government did – twice. The first time was in 2019 when it signed the EU Withdrawal Agreement and its accompanying Northern Ireland Protocol, and the second was when Rishi Sunak cemented this egregious wrong by signing ‘the Windsor Framework’ in 2023.
Cross-party coalition of ‘big guns’ lined up to co-sponsor this Bill
Here are the big names who co-sponsored Jim Allister’s Bill yesterday. They are all agreed on the unworkability and unacceptability of the present arrangements and determined to offer a better way forward.
1.9m of our fellow citizens live under EU laws over which they have no say and no vote
We now live under a government which, in its first 100 days in power, surrendered sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory of the Chagos Islands. This was done without a referendum and without a full House of Commons debate, in a breath-taking use of executive power by Sir Keir Starmer.
Given the direction of travel of this Government, Jim Allister’s Private Member’s Bill to restore sovereignty to Northern Ireland has no realistic chance of being passed. It does, however, place this issue front and centre once again, which is where it should be.
For years Facts4EU.Org and CIBUK.Org have campaigned on this issue and today we are pleased to provide a platform for Jim Allister, Leader of the Traditional Ulster Voice Party, to explain what is at stake.
Video and transcript
Below is a video Mr Allister sent us yesterday following his speech in Parliament. After this we provide a transcript for those who can’t watch the video at this point.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
Transcript
“Today we had the First Reading of my Private Members Bill which means that the parliamentary process has started for consideration of its proposals.
“Those proposals are centred on restoring Northern Ireland’s place properly within the United Kingdom after the detriment and damage done by the Protocol. That would be done through this Bill by insisting that no legislation should be able to interfere with the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom, nor should it be able to subject any part of the United Kingdom to laws made by any foreign parliament.
“If we can deal with those fundamental issues, then we can deal with the essential mischief and damage of the Protocol.
“And then to deal with the border with the Republic of Ireland we are proposing a variety of measures all compatible with international law and international trade practice whereby when you are trading with a foreign country then you have to produce those goods to their standards.
“The United Kingdom could enforce those standards upon any exporting company into the Irish Republic and vice versa and thereby we dissipate the need for the wholly constitutionally destructive Irish Sea border and the fact that GB is treated under the Protocol as a foreign country whose goods when they move to Northern Ireland are moving to part of the EU.
“That ignominy and constitutional obscenity has to be got rid of. I will be putting it to Parliament in the strongest possible terms that none of the constituents of members of elsewhere in the United Kingdom would for one moment tolerate their laws being made by a foreign Parliament that they don’t elect. So why should it be that we in Northern Ireland should be subject to that indignity and that infamy? That is what I am trying to address.”
- Jim Allister KC MP, speaking immediately after the First Reading of his Private Members Bill, 16 October 2024
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Summary of the Bill’s provisions
Mr Allister’s Bill, entitled, ‘European Union (Withdrawal Amendments) Bill’, seeks to address the constitutional and practical detriment of the Windsor Framework/Protocol arrangements as they affect Northern Ireland.
This detriment includes the diminution of NI’s position within the UK, by virtue of being subject in much of its economy to EU, not UK laws, and the resulting imposition of a partitioning goods border in the Irish Sea. The Bill seeks to reverse this detriment and enables practical solutions to govern the movement of goods from NI to the EU’s territory of the Republic of Ireland.
Clause 1 will set out constitutional imperatives governing all future arrangements. These will require respect for the territorial integrity of the UK and the avoidance of any part of the UK being subject to foreign made laws.
Clause 2 will then temper the effect of section 7A of the EU Withdrawal Act 2018, which is the conduit by which EU law flows into effect in NI, by circumscribing it with the statutory requirement to respect both the territorial integrity of the UK and the common rights of the Acts of Union.
Clause 3 and an associated Schedule will then address how goods should move from NI to the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and vice versa by making provision for Statutory Instruments enabling both alternative arrangements and mutual enforcement, such as was anticipated under the NI Protocol Bill 2022, which passed the Commons before being ‘pulled’ by Rishi Sunak.
The Windsor Framework/Protocol is wreaking constitutional havoc in respect of NI and its governance, with new impositions evolving all the time. This Bill is designed to reverse that and put relations back on the internationally accepted framework of the EU and the UK each respecting the territorial integrity of the other. Only this can provide the foundation for a neighbourly and successful relationship.
Observations
For years Facts4EU.Org has campaigned to restore full sovereignty to the entirety of the United Kingdom. For 1.9m UK citizens to be under the yoke of EU laws over which they have no say and no vote is so appalling it is hard to imagine that our government acquiesced to this power grab by the European Union – but this is what they did.
Jim Allister’s Bill sadly will not pass, but what it does do is to put this issue firmly back in the limelight, where it belongs.
Nearly two years ago Mr Allister kindly commented on our definitive report on the N.I. sovereignty issue and today we are grateful to him for working with us again.
Our position is clear. Sovereignty is non-negotiable.
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[ Sources: Jim Allister ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 17 Oct 2024
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