December date pencilled in for Stormont vote on post-Brexit trade arrangements

The democratic consent process is a key element of the UK and EU’s Windsor Framework deal and is designed to give local elected representatives a say on the contentious trade rules that now operate in the region.

The framework, and its predecessor the Northern Ireland Protocol, require checks and customs paperwork on goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.

Under the arrangements, which were designed to ensure no hardening of the Irish land border post-Brexit, Northern Ireland continues to follow many EU trade and customs rules.

This has proved highly controversial, with unionists arguing the system threatens Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.

Advocates of the arrangements argue they help insulate the region from negative economic consequences of Brexit.

A dispute over the so-called Irish Sea border led to the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2022 – an impasse that lasted two years.

Under the terms of the framework, a Stormont vote must be held on articles five to 10 of the Windsor Framework, which underpin the EU trade laws in force in Northern Ireland, before they expire. The vote must take place before December 17.

Based on the numbers in the Assembly, MLAs are expected to back the continuation of the measures for another four years, even though unionists are set to oppose the move.

MLAs from Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance Party, which all favour continuation, submitted the required motion to table the debate and vote over the weekend after Stormont’s first and deputy first ministers failed to reach an agreement to do it jointly themselves.

The process to trigger the vote began at the end of October when Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn sent a letter to the Speaker Edwin Poots asking First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly to table a motion by the end of November.

Given the DUP is opposed to a continuation of arrangements that have brought added red tape on trade with the rest of the UK, it was not unexpected that a motion calling for their extension was not forthcoming from the joint office of a Sinn Fein First Minister and a DUP deputy First Minister.

Once the one-month time period for Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly to table the motion expired at the end of November, it was open for other MLAs in Stormont to do it on an individual basis.

That was done on Sunday December 1 by Sinn Fein’s Philip McGuigan, the Alliance Party’s Eoin Tennyson and the SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole when they submitted a motion to the Assembly’s Business Office that proposed the continuation of the trading arrangements.

With the motion submitted, the Northern Ireland Office must provide explanatory material to all MLAs outlining information about the workings of the arrangements and the Government’s stated position on their continuation.

Mr Poots told MLAs that Mr Benn wrote to him on Monday morning providing that material for onward distribution to members.

“It will now be for the Business Committee to determine the arrangements for a debate on that motion,” he said.

“Last Tuesday the Business Committee agreed provisionally that time be set aside on Tuesday 10th of December should the motion be tabled.

“The Business Committee will confirm arrangements at its meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

DUP leader Gavin Robinson has already made clear his party will be voting against continuing the operation of the Windsor Framework.

Unlike other votes on contentious issues at Stormont, the motion does not require cross-community support to pass.

If it is voted through with a simple majority, the arrangements are extended for four years. In that event, the Government is obliged to hold an independent review of how the framework is working.

If it wins cross-community support – which is a majority of unionists and a majority of nationalists – then it is extended for eight years.

The chances of it securing such cross-community backing are highly unlikely.