Member

The Minister is doing a job here, and we understand the overall objective. We all want to see pollution reduced, even though, as noble Lord, Lord Redwood, said, we are simply exporting the pollution, by and large, at a rate of knots. We all want to move in that direction, but it has to be equitable and fair and have a bit of common sense applied to it. This does not contain any common sense. In my view, this is an EU-driven process. That is the issue. The cat was let out of the bag by ensuring that Northern Ireland would not have a competitive advantage over sea traffic to the Irish Republic. That seems to be the driving force—not within the United Kingdom, as others have said. The Minister should be taking this back because if we are having negotiations, as mentioned in the Northern Ireland Office’s contribution, why are we starting by agreeing something and then sitting down to negotiate? It seems to me that if we are negotiating with the European Union our negotiators need to take extra shoes and socks with them because every time they come out of Brussels, they come out in their bare feet.