Northern Ireland Protocol

Question

Our overriding priority is the restoration of fully functioning devolved government, as provided for in the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. While the Protocol was originally intended to protect the 1998 Agreement in both construct and implementation, it is now undermining it and threatening political stability in Northern Ireland. We cannot allow this to continue. While our preference remains to resolve issues around the Protocol through negotiation, this will require greater flexibility from the European Union than hitherto has been the case. Our legislation will enable us to deal with the problems created by the Protocol in ways that uphold the 1998 Agreement, avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland and protects the integrity of both the UK Internal Market and the EU Single Market.