The Conservative Party-led British government is pressuring pro-Brexit, pro-British unionists in Northern Ireland to accept their ongoing sell-out to the European Union and form a regional government or face consequences.
Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Ulster, particularly by British Unionists in the Province, was left effectively still inside the European Union, at least for the purposes of customs and regulations, and even subject to an internal border between it and the Great British mainland in the Brexit deal agreed by Boris Johnson.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which is the largest of the pro-British parties in Northern Ireland, fiercely opposed this as undermining their place in the United Kingdom, and ultimately refused to continue participating in the power-sharing government with pro-EU, Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin when London failed to rectify the situation — meaning no regional government at all.
Chris Heaton-Harris, the Liz Truss government’s Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has now warned the DUP that if they do not form a regional government with Sinn Féin — something they have vowed they will not do until the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol is reformed — he will have a “legal obligation” to call another regional election, which may prove difficult for the DUP now the nationalist-leaning Catholic community outnumbers the unionist-leaning Protestant community for the first time.
“I’ll have to call an election on the 28th of October if there is no executive. That is just a fact,” he said, per POLITICO.
Prime Minister Liz Truss, though she campaigned energetically for the Remain in the European Union campaign in 2016, claims she has embraced Brexit and was pro-Brexit Conservative politicians’ candidate of choice for party leader in the race to replace Boris Johnson.
For all her supposed convert’s zeal, however, there appears little prospect that she will stand up to the EU on Northern Ireland imminently, despite evidence of significant disruption to GB-NI trade as a result of the way the Northern Ireland Protocol is being applied, with customs checks allegedly being carried out with disproportionate vigour by officials.
Indeed, demands from the DUP that the Protocol be unilaterally abolished or reformed, threatened by the British government in the face of EU intransigence for approaching two years, are unlikely to be lead to any action for at least another six months, with that being the latest deadline Truss has set for a compromise with Brussels to be reached.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.