Jim Shannon

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. You caught me off guard there. I am used to being the last to speak. You are very kind to invite me to participate. Can I first of all give special thanks to the hon. Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah) for her speech? I get on well with her, and she gave me her book as a gift; I read it from beginning to end. I was very moved by her contribution. For me, she epitomises strength of character and courage, despite all the hard things that life threw agin her. She was able to overcome them, and she is a lady of exceptional talent. I want to put that on record. The hon. Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) said that the hon. Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) mentioned Harlow 35 times in his speech. I thought it was more! I never was very good at mathematics. The hon. Gentleman is a great asset to this House, and his speech seconding the motion was worthy of this place. We thank both him and the hon. Member for Bradford West for their contributions. My comments about the King’s Speech will be in two parts. We have all heard about the curate’s egg: it was good in parts. I want to speak first about the good things that I see in the King’s Speech, and then I want to refer to some specifics about Northern Ireland. I very much welcome the Government’s commitment to addressing the issue of antisemitism. The Prime Minister and the Labour Government have grasped the importance of the escalation in antisemitism in this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is really important that it is grasped, and I hope that the forthcoming Bill and the directive that comes from the top, from the Prime Minister, will address the issue. For that to happen, we need resources, so I hope that on Wednesday night, when we finish these debates, a financial commitment will be made. I also welcome the Government’s commitment to the defence funding target. In an intervention on the hon. Member for North Cotswolds (Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown), I referred to the importance of changing technology in defence. For instance, in the last few weeks, there has been lots of talk in the papers about Ukraine grasping new drone technology in a way that no other country in the world has done. It is time that we had a partnership with Ukraine, so that we can be involved in drone technology and the changes in how warfare is conducted. I thank the Labour Government very much for lifting all those children out of poverty. That moves me greatly, because I see lots of young children in poverty in my constituency. Sixty-thousand children in Northern Ireland were lifted out of poverty by what this Government have done. I thank them for what they have done on those three issues. I always try to be decent in my contributions—they are never meant to be adversarial—but I have to record some of the points that concern me. The King’s Speech laid bare the true priorities of this Administration. Let me speak from a Unionist point of view. The Government speak of a stronger and fairer United Kingdom, but what this Government say, through His Majesty King Charles, tells a different story for Northern Ireland. Unionists judge a Government not by their rhetoric, but by their respect for the constitutional integrity of our nation and their commitment to fundamental justice. On both counts, this legislative agenda unfortunately falls profoundly short. Indeed, I listened intently to discover exactly where Northern Ireland was in the plan put forward in the King’s Speech, and I struggled to find its role in it, and that is worrying to the extreme. Nowhere is that failure more evident than in the Government’s decision to carry over the highly contentious Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. Although we know that it is being carried over from the last Session, there was not much mention of it today—but Opposition Members certainly referred to it. Let us be completely clear about what is happening. This legislation is being pushed forward, despite having zero support from the people who matter most: our victims, our survivors, and our courageous veterans—those with the clean hands and the aching hearts. Instead of listening to the families who carried the heaviest burdens during the dark years of terror, the Government have chosen to bend the knee to intense pressure from the Dublin Government. It really vexes me, as a Unionist and a Democratic Unionist party MP, to recognise that the Republic of Ireland Government have more say in this process than I have—someone who lost family members to the IRA campaign, and who represents, in Strangford, many of those who served and who also lost loved ones. The Democratic Unionist party will always stand firmly against any process that aims to rewrite the past, shield terrorists or treat our brave security forces as anything less than the defenders of democracy. It is a disgrace that Westminster is ignoring domestic consensus to satisfy a foreign jurisdiction, because that is what the Republic of Ireland is, and that there was no reference to reform, or even a nod to the massive work that must be done. We also heard about the Government’s grand design for an EU reset. I put on the record that I am a Brexiteer, and I voted to leave—and we did not get all we wanted in Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the United Kingdom. You will forgive me, Madam Deputy Speaker, for refusing to offer commentary on the inner workings of any party. I said the other day that I will make no mention of what is happening in Labour, because that is its decision, and I will leave that with Labour; but the effect of what is happening on my nation, on Northern Ireland, must be recognised. There appears to be a desperate scramble for a closer relationship with Brussels, yet one of the main casualties of our relationship with the EU has been Northern Ireland. In the Brexit process, we received callous treatment, yet not one single word has been uttered about renegotiation. I have an ask for the Labour Government and the Ministers in their place—I am very respectful of the two Ministers here, and I always will be. Northern Ireland’s position, at this moment, is not the same as the United Kingdom’s. If we are to have a renegotiation, and closer ties with the EU, I ask that we be put at the forefront of the Prime Minister’s and the Labour Government’s intentions. The Prime Minister intends to align Great Britain more closely with European laws. If the rest of the United Kingdom is set to follow EU regulations, the Government must answer a fundamental question: where is the road map for moving entirely beyond the Windsor framework, and how has any discussion of legislation on the European question taken place without even a nod towards those of us in Northern Ireland who have been used and abused by the EU, in order to negate the democratic will of the people of this United Kingdom? If the Prime Minister and the Labour Government have set their eyes and their focus on closer ties, please ensure that we in Northern Ireland are on the same page. I seek a renegotiation for ourselves, and a place for us at the table. Others may say that, too, in the other days of debate on the King’s Speech. Perhaps this is one of those times when silence has spoken more clearly than words ever could, and perhaps the Government need to be reminded that we, the people of Ulster, will not be silent. We demand that our Government recognise the disgraceful impact of the framework and prioritise its dismantling. If Great Britain aligns with those rules, there is no longer even a flawed logistical excuse for maintaining an artificial barrier in the Irish sea. The continued enforcement of the Winsor framework remains a direct unconstitutional assault on Northern Ireland’s economic and political place in the United Kingdom. If the Government genuinely desire a fairer path that unlocks hope, they must immediately stop treating Northern Ireland as a bargaining chip. We are not a bargaining chip; we are part of this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It gives me great pride and pleasure to say that, because I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I am proud to have a British passport and to be a member of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We in Northern Ireland, Unionists that we are, deserve to have the same declaration and recognition. We demand a clear road map to eliminate internal trade friction, scrap the Irish sea border, and fully restore our place in the United Kingdom internal market. The Democratic Unionist party will continue to challenge this legislative programme at every turn, fighting for real justice for our veterans and the complete restoration of our constitutional rights. The Leader of the Liberal Democrats mentioned the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the commitment that the Government have made. I welcome that commitment. Thirty thousand—perhaps as many as 40,000—people were arrested for peacefully protesting on the streets. They were put in jail, and many of them have been executed just for standing up for freedom, verbally—not having taken any physical action. The week before last, when we were about to enter Prorogation, six Iranian ladies who protested on the streets were facing execution. It is for those who want freedom that I make these comments. Perhaps we need not hesitation, but a timescale for the direct and immediate proscription of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. For years we have listened to grand promises from the Dispatch Box, yet instead of using counter-terrorism legislation to immediately ban that hostile state entity, the Government have nested the issue within a broader and delayed legislative framework. Such tactical evasion exposes a worrying vulnerability; we are creating new bureaucratic hoops, rather than enacting an outright immediate ban. As I said at the beginning of my remarks, the King’s Speech is a curate’s egg. I have spoken about the good things in it, and I also wanted to highlight some of the things that I and my party have concerns about. It is always a pleasure to see the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, the hon. Member for Midlothian (Kirsty McNeill), in her place. I wish her well in her job. I pray for every Minister; I pray that they will be full of wisdom when it comes to doing the right thing, and knowing when to say it. I wish you well, Minister.