Lord Bew (CB)

My Lords, I support the intervention of my noble and learned friend Lady Butler-Sloss on the question of Scotland and the Scottish intervention. I do so because it makes me profoundly uneasy. When I was reading the explanatory comments from the Government for this new SI, the emphasis is on the Northern Ireland protocol of 2020. The Windsor Framework is designed to correct quite explicitly the disproportionate destabilisation of, “Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom internal market”. One of the ways in which it does so is clear in paragraph 51. It says it insists on, “Northern Ireland’s central place in the UK market, on an equal footing with counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales.” Scotland is specifically mentioned there. As my noble and learned friend Lady Butler-Sloss points out, this SI simply does not give treatment “on an equal footing” with Scotland. I know that Charles de Gaulle gave a famous and cynical statement about treaties: that they lasted as long as pretty young girls and roses. I have always assumed that this was not the view of this Government and that they are committed to international law. There is a real problem with what they are doing with this SI. It is not compatible with the central commitment in paragraph 51 of the Windsor Framework. My second point is broader, and has already been touched on by the noble Lord, Lord Dodds. The fact is that the institutions in Northern Ireland are not in as stable a condition as they should be. When the Government talk in the Explanatory Notes about the actual impact of this SI on individuals in Northern Ireland being small, I absolutely accept that. The trouble is that the number of these SIs is mounting and every few weeks, we are back in this Chamber. By the time it comes to the next Assembly elections, there will be those politicians in Northern Ireland who will have momentum to say, “Look at this list of statutory instruments. Look at these things that have moved away from the Windsor Framework.” Those who have listened to this debate will realise that the Windsor Framework is not enormously popular within the unionist population in Northern Ireland. But that having been said, it was part of the means by which the institutions were returned, so what is at stake here? Above all else, in the broader sense, it is the survival of the institutions of the Good Friday agreement. The Government, I am sure, are absolutely determined to see the survival of those institutions—a great Labour achievement. However, they will not be assisted in this task if they proceed to take solemn commitments in the Windsor Framework that they supported strongly in opposition, and just say, “That doesn’t matter. We could have a Scottish exemption now. We can forget the commitment in paragraph 51 that there would be no such thing.” The stability of the institutions of Northern Ireland in the longer term require the Government to rethink on this matter.