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UK government will operate checks on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland, Stormont told
The government has privately conceded there will be checks on goods crossing the Irish sea post Brexit, months after Boris Johnson insisted there would be no such trade barriers.
Members of the Stormont assembly were told that they had a briefing from the executive office officials on Monday on the latest plans to implement the protocol and they included checks at the ports and airports.
“The sum total of that, and without breaching executive confidentiality … [is that the] British government has confirmed it will urgently put in place detailed plans with the executive, which does include the physical posts at ports of entry,” said Declan Kearney, junior minister at the executive office, the regional equivalent of the Cabinet Office in London.
The checks would involve customs controls and health checks on animals and fresh food products entering Northern Ireland from Britain from 2021 to comply with the Brexit deal.
The checks were part of the deal struck by Johnson with the EU last October.
However, to the astonishment of the EU, he spent the election campaign in December telling businesses there would be no checks. If they were asked to fill in any paperwork they could call him up and he would tell them to throw it in the bin.
While he continued to stick to this position in January, more recently Michael Gove has given assurances that the UK will observe the Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement.
The government has privately conceded there will be checks on goods crossing the Irish sea post Brexit, months after Boris Johnson insisted there would be no such trade barriers.
Members of the Stormont assembly were told that they had a briefing from the executive office officials on Monday on the latest plans to implement the protocol and they included checks at the ports and airports.
“The sum total of that, and without breaching executive confidentiality … [is that the] British government has confirmed it will urgently put in place detailed plans with the executive, which does include the physical posts at ports of entry,” said Declan Kearney, junior minister at the executive office, the regional equivalent of the Cabinet Office in London.
The checks would involve customs controls and health checks on animals and fresh food products entering Northern Ireland from Britain from 2021 to comply with the Brexit deal.
The checks were part of the deal struck by Johnson with the EU last October.
However, to the astonishment of the EU, he spent the election campaign in December telling businesses there would be no checks. If they were asked to fill in any paperwork they could call him up and he would tell them to throw it in the bin.
While he continued to stick to this position in January, more recently Michael Gove has given assurances that the UK will observe the Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement.
