The Windsor Framework: a backdoor to Brexit betrayal

The Windsor Framework is predicted to move in parliament on Wednesday. Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak even says he’s prepared to depend on Labour votes to verify of it. We’re instructed that individuals are ‘drained’ of EU negotiations and simply need an finish to all of it. The Windsor Framework definitely marks an finish to Brexit – in additional methods than one.

It’s because the Windsor Framework, Sunak’s renegotiated model of the Northern Eire Protocol, provides the EU management of Northern Eire and by extension, management of the UK. It primarily torpedoes the UK-EU commerce settlement, destroying any notion of a relationship between equals, and it returns the UK to law-taker standing. A win-win for the EU.

Drained individuals and politicians like compromises. The issue is that regulation can’t be compromised. Somebody all the time wins and somebody all the time loses. Within the case of the Windsor Framework, the battle is over which authorized system will govern the UK. There are solely two solutions right here: ours or the EU’s. Underneath the framework because it stands, the EU will win.

This can have an actual, tangible affect on the UK’s means to control itself. For instance, a invoice is at present making its method via parliament that will outlaw importing searching trophies of endangered species. This isn’t solely the need of the UK authorities – additionally it is a well-liked coverage with the general public. Will probably be rendered pointless, nevertheless, by the Windsor Framework.

The compromise supplied by the framework implies that trophies can nonetheless be introduced again to Northern Eire. EU regulation will stay dominant in Northern Eire and the EU doesn’t intend to introduce any related hunting-trophy ban. As soon as in Northern Eire, there are a number of methods the trophies then move seamlessly into the UK.

This was identified to the federal government final week by DUP MP Sammy Wilson. And the federal government needed to concede that it was true. Trudy Harrison, parliamentary under-secretary of state for pure surroundings and land use, agreed that any trophy that certified as a very good beneath the UK Inner Market Act 2020 can be allowed to move from Northern Eire into Nice Britain.

So, no matter you consider this challenge, parliament is ready to enact a ‘ban’ that may be a ban in identify solely. Will probably be a nonsense regulation. The federal government could have compromised away all its energy.

This can occur again and again. Successive UK governments – of all events – will wish to move new legal guidelines and comply with via on marketing campaign guarantees. The one method they are going to be ready to take action is that if the EU agrees.

There’s a customary assumption within the UK that each one EU regulation is marvellous. It’s not dissimilar to Del Boy Trotter’s well-known deference to something French. But it surely means our legislators and media usually overlook what the EU is definitely as much as. As an illustration, earlier this yr, the EU made it lawful for partially defatted cricket powder – an insect product – to be put into meals. All types of issues from pasta to flour to beer can now legally comprise cricket powder within the EU. If the Windsor Framework passes via parliament, meals with this powder will even be allowed into the UK, in the identical method that the supposedly unlawful searching trophies can be. And our authorities can be powerless to cease it. The UK gained’t actually have a say over how merchandise containing the cricket powder are labelled. All that may lie with the EU.

The EU has an expansive strategy to permitting insect merchandise into the meals chain. Underneath the Windsor Framework, the UK can be powerless to cease the identical from taking place right here. Hate the concept? You might attempt to elect a authorities that guarantees to cease it. However beneath the framework, it merely gained’t matter.

Who remembers mad cow illness? Or foot and mouth? Within the UK, we launched legal guidelines to cease the unfold of those ailments, outlawing the feeding of animal stays to livestock. Whereas we had been bickering over Brexit, nevertheless, the EU lifted its personal ban on this in 2021. The result’s that animal feed containing different animals can be allowed into Northern Eire. And, you guessed it, from there it could actually move into the entire of the UK. And no MP can do something about it.

The Windsor Framework is just not a ‘compromise’ to deliver an finish to Brexit – it’s the switch of management to the EU. Some issues can’t be compromised on – regardless of how arduous individuals attempt. The UK can both govern itself or let the EU do it. Let’s see which selection MPs make on Wednesday.

Steven Barrett is a barrister.