Letters: Protocol Bill must be fully implemented

With regards the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and its progress through Parliament, the foreign secretary has said the government “will not either artificially accelerate or artificially retard or hinder that process”.

The pro-Union community in Northern Ireland will see through these carefully chosen words showing ambivalence to the priority to which former PMs Johnson and Truss committed.

We acknowledge it will be difficult getting the bill through the Lords unamended but this is not a reason to shy away from the commitment to strengthen our negotiating hand in parallel negotiations with the EU.

The government in court has admitted the Acts of Union have been impliedly repealed. As the late Lord Trimble said, what is the Union but the Act of Union? Northern Ireland’s constitutional position has been altered without the consent of the people. A key principle of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement has been breached. The Irish government (co-guarantors of the agreement) have encouraged the facilitation of an economic united Ireland without our consent. Business, consumers and voters have had their constitutional rights compromised as equal citizens of the UK. It remains unfinished business for the government to deliver the democratic wish of the UK to leave the EU in line with the question on the ballot paper.

NI Conservatives will continue to work for full implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to ensure solutions in line with the hard fought principle of parity for us in Northern Ireland as equal citizens of the UK.

Johnny Andrews, Vice chairman, NI Conservative & Unionist Party Multi Constituency Association