MLAs to vote on continuing Windsor Framework

The Northern Ireland Assembly will vote on whether or not to continue with controversial post-Brexit trading arrangements on Tuesday.

The process, known as the democratic consent motion, was first agreed between the UK and EU in the 2020 Withdrawal Agreement to give local politicians a say in the new post-Brexit trading rules.

Several parties at Stormont tabled a motion to the assembly as part of the process that guarantees MLAs a say on whether to maintain some of the arrangements.

The vote, which will decide if the arrangements will continue to operate for another four years, has to take place before the end of 2024.

The motion was tabled jointly by Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP.

But controversially, unlike other votes at Stormont, there is no requirement for cross-community support for the motion. A simple majority will suffice.

The DUP and other unionist parties have argued the vote creates a democratic deficit as the concerns of unionists, who are in the minority at Stormont, can be ignored.

If the vote is carried without cross-community support, the government has committed to ordering an independent review of the post-Brexit arrangements and their implications.

The Alliance leader, Naomi Long, has confirmed her party would vote in favour of retaining the framework.

“The Windsor Framework remains the only viable option to help Northern Ireland navigate the chaos brought about by Brexit,” she said.

Long said those voting to remove it would be causing more instability at a time when people need the opposite.

The Leader of the Opposition, the SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole, said that the Assembly should use the debate “as an opportunity to discuss the potential that exists within our future relationship with Europe”.

“Northern Ireland has a unique relationship with the EU, not just because of the protocol but because our people have EU citizenship by birth right and the right to re-enter the EU automatically after a referendum.”

O’Toole said if an independent review is called after the vote, the party will make the case to maximise opportunities with the EU, including a voice in the European Parliament.

The DUP’s Sammy Wilson has called on the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to “press the European Union” to remove trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The East Antrim MP said that his Assembly party colleagues would vote against the continuation of the arrangements.

“We have consistently warned about the unfairness of the Democratic Consent vote since October 2019, despite unionists voting against, this vote has been rigged to get the desired outcome,” he added.

On Monday, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson’s legal action against the Stormont vote was dismissed by the High Court.

Mr Bryson claimed Secretary of State Hilary Benn had acted unlawfully by initiating the democratic consent process to maintain the Windsor Framework for another four years.

But a judge refused to grant leave to seek a judicial review after declaring the challenge “untenable”.

Mr Justice McAlinden said: “There is no arguable case with a reasonable prospect of success.”

In 2023 the Northern Ireland Protocol became the Windsor Framework after an agreement between the UK and EU.

It effectively keeps Northern Ireland inside the EU’s single market for goods.

That means that the goods trade across the border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU country, has remained undisturbed by Brexit.

The flipside is that goods arriving from elsewhere in the UK are subject to controls and checks—what is known as the Irish Sea border.

For the EU, the new framework left the basic architecture of 2019’s protocol intact, creating a trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to prevent a hard land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.