Jim Allister MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 17 Dec 2024 · National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill · Hansard source

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  When we talk about national insurance, it is easy to forget that it is only part of the tax burden placed upon employers. However, within the matrix of tax, the reach of national insurance that has been delivered by the change is truly shocking, particularly because of the reduction of the threshold to £5,000. I suspect that will mean that there is not a single person who does a part-time job whose employer will not now be paying 15% national insurance. Before we even come to the viability of the business they work for, that makes the viability of that job questionable. To reduce the threshold by that amount is the most punitive part of the measure. It is not even tempered, as it could have been, by a phased reduction, so rather than paying 15%, someone could pay a lower amount, such as 5%, if the threshold was reduced to £5,000. The measure is excessively punitive and will hit many small businesses in everyone’s constituency, including mine. I think of small businesses throughout North Antrim. They employ six, seven, eight or 10 people, and may stretch to take on an extra worker, but they will not be stretching like that any more. They will be stretching the other way, because the consequence of the measure is putting them over the edge in terms of what is affordable. I am talking not just about small businesses but about a vast swathe of a critical sector that keeps our society in operation. Our community and voluntary sector will be among those most cruelly affected and particularly those who are often doing the job of Government, delivering services in our community. They will bear it unabated, without any assistance such as the assistance that the public sector will have. I was interested to receive and to read the report from the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, which is clear that whereas public sector organisations will have their budgets on this aspect reimbursed, voluntary and community sector organisations will not have the same protection. They will have to absorb the budget increase. Yet, as I have said, many of those in the voluntary and community sector deliver services on behalf of Government. The public sector therefore gets matters ameliorated, but those that deliver services for Government in the voluntary and community sector will not. That will have an effect not just on those organisations, but on the services they deliver and, therefore, on all our constituents to whom those services are delivered. When we ally 15% on national insurance with the increase in the living wage, we have a double whammy. The two together are the very thing that will produce a negative outcome. The hospitality sector in my constituency, as a sector that already runs on relatively small margins and employs a lot of part-time people who will now fall within the ambit of employers’ national insurance, has drawn attention to the fact that the increase, along with the living wage increase, will impose a huge burden. Indeed, the sector’s organisation has suggested that the living wage and national insurance increases will add £2,500 a year for every employee. What business, in current circumstances, can simply shrug that off and carry on unaffected? There will be very few, indeed. The consequences will be substantial and will affect many small businesses, be it the butcher on our high street, our community services provided by voluntary organisations, our doctors or our dentists. The latter are already under huge pressure and many are giving up national health service provision. Why? It is because they cannot make ends meet. Then, Government come along and put this burden upon them. I therefore say to the Government that, yes, they have the numbers that mean they can close their ears to all of this. They can impose this if that is their will, but in imposing it they will do irreparable damage to those who they say they care about. This is a wake-up moment. If the Government truly care about ordinary people, whose jobs will be lost and who will be affected by this measure, and about ordinary businesses, which are not rolling in riches but making ends meet, they need to find a way to readdress this issue and to bring back some viability, going forward, for those businesses.

• 17 Dec 2024 · Women’s State Pension Age Communication: PHSO Report · Hansard source

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  Is not the appalling message from the Government today that maladministration pays? If, as here, we have nationwide maladministration and no consequences, what other conclusion could one reach? What is the point of an ombudsman if the Government can be the judge in their own cause and dispense with the findings? Surely, the whole purpose of finding maladministration is to ensure that the maladministrator pays.

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Employers · Hansard source

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  E-commerce is a growing part of our economy. Will the Minister spare a thought for small-scale employers in my constituency and throughout Northern Ireland, who. since Friday, have seen their supply chain clobbered by the imposition on Northern Ireland of the EU’s general product safety regulations? Because of the extra paperwork and the need to pay an agent in Northern Ireland, many suppliers in Great Britain are now refusing to sell to Northern Ireland. Will this Government ever take steps to reintegrate Northern Ireland into the internal market—

• 16 Dec 2024 · Royal Mail Takeover · Hansard source

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  When I visited the two depots in my constituency last week—I join Members in thanking our posties—I noticed how run down and aged the van fleets are. Will there be an upgrade of Royal Mail fleets as part of this deal? Given the Minister has said that the Government’s golden share does not extend, maybe understandably, to operational matters, is the takeaway today that there can be no assurance for my rural constituents that their service will be maintained at the level that they expect?

• 11 Dec 2024 · Puberty-suppressing Hormones · Hansard source

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  I certainly welcome the Secretary of State’s extension of the ban on the prescription of puberty blockers. I want to ask him whether he has more information for us on the criteria that will apply for entry into the clinical trials. Will there, for example, be a minimum age? Will parental consent be required? Both those things seem to be important, so may I have assurance on those two points?

• 9 Dec 2024 · Syria · Hansard source

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  May I bring the Foreign Secretary back to a point raised by the shadow Foreign Secretary, the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), which I do not think he fully addressed? Will he assure the House that the Government will block any asylum applications from Assad’s acolytes in the years ahead?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  My Bill is about seeking to restore democracy to the arrangements. That is why I want to take back from Brussels control over our laws. My Bill is a charter for democratic progress. The present arrangements are the antithesis of democratic operation.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  The EU has behaved not as a friend to Northern Ireland. The EU has behaved as a sovereignty grabber in respect of Northern Ireland. That is where it caused, and continues to cause, the offence. If hon. Members think it is a good thing to back that up and endorse it, they obviously do not think very much of the territory of Northern Ireland.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress. I will be as generous as I can with interventions, because I know that Government Members want to talk this Bill out—and, because they are not shame-faced enough, some of them want to vote against the principles of the Bill, but there we go. The right hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) makes an important point. The reason why that point has traction is found in EU regulation 625 from 2017. It determines that Northern Ireland is, according to our courts, for these purposes, EU territory. We have had several legal cases in Northern Ireland, such as the Rooney case. The judgment in that case established that the EU official controls on food and feed law, animal health, plant health and so on have to be in place because our High Court has ruled that under that applicable EU law, for regulatory and customs purposes, the entry point to the EU is the Northern Ireland ports. Could it be any more Union-dismantling than that? Under EU law, to which we are subject, the entry point to the EU is the ports of Northern Ireland. Mr Justice Colton said that EU regulations must be interpreted according to EU law as a result of article 4.1 of the withdrawal agreement and article 13.2 of the protocol, which, he goes on to say, have domestic effect in the United Kingdom under section 7A the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. He said that under the withdrawal agreement it is at Northern Ireland ports that EU territory is entered. He went on: “The UK is not to be treated as a unitary state for the purposes of OCR checks coming from GB into NI.” Could it be any more stark that Northern Ireland has been colonised by the EU? What is a colony? It is a territory governed by someone else’s laws from a foreign jurisdiction. When 300 areas of law—including customs, and including the very definition of Northern Ireland’s territory in trading terms—are governed by foreign EU laws, we have created a situation in which, in that context, Northern Ireland is a veritable colony. There are many people in the House—the Government Benches opposite are populated by many of them—who boast of their anti-colonialism. They constantly pride themselves on their anti-colonial heritage. Yet here we have a part of this United Kingdom colonised by EU law, to the point that we are told that when someone enters the ports of Northern Ireland, they enter EU territory.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I remind the Minister that the magical thinking came from the EU itself, through Jonathan Faull and his colleagues, who made that very suggestion. And why would what I suggest not work? If the EU is our friend—if we trust it and it trusts us—why would it not trust us to keep our word on imposing its standards on our goods entering its territory? If that does not work, then it is time to talk about alternatives, but that proposal should be the starting point. There was the whimsical dismissal that it would not work, even though it has never been tried. The really chilling thing about the Minister’s intervention is its subtext: “Suck it up, Northern Ireland. You’re no longer a full part of the United Kingdom. You will just live like a colony of the EU, under its laws in 300 areas. We have no empathy and no desire to fix it; we will just leave you in that position.” That is the chilling import of her intervention.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Brexit was a national vote, decided for better or for worse on a national basis. The people of London did not vote for Brexit, but no one is saying they should now be ruled by laws from Brussels. The People of Northern Ireland by a small majority did not vote for Brexit, but Members are saying that we should be ruled by laws from Brussels. That does not stack up. I am simply calling in aid what the Belfast agreement says: the Belfast agreement says key decisions are cross-community. Is anyone denying this is a key decision? If so, why is it not a cross-community vote?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. I will return to that.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Are there, or are there not, 300 areas of law that are now beyond the legislative reach of this House and the Assembly because they lie within the purview of the European Parliament? Is that true or false?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I would rather give way to the Minister on that issue, but I hear no answer. The House has been patient as I have laid out the arguments for the Bill. I see the Bill as an opportunity to restore the equilibrium, which I hope to have demonstrated has been destroyed in these arrangements. That is the democratic equilibrium, the equilibrium of equal citizenship, the equilibrium of Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and the equilibrium of our relations with the EU. All those are positives, all those are in the national interest, and all those are that which I believe should recommend themselves to the House. I trust that the House will give favour to the Bill.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Ours is not a delivery problem; ours is a bar on sending. Ours is not just that it is too difficult; ours is that it is too difficult because of the international customs requirements. That is the difference between us and the highlands and islands. I am sure the highlands and islands do have that delivery problem, and I am sure that small businesses do shirk the desire to serve them, but in Northern Ireland it is for a more fundamental and compelling reason.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. The fascinating point is the very concept was articulated from and originated within the EU itself. During the early stages of the negotiations, Sir Jonathan Faull and academics Daniel Sarmiento and Joseph Weiler came up with that proposition. It is not my proposition. It is not a United Kingdom proposition. It was an EU proposition. They said the answer is mutual enforcement. Today we have a statement from those three gentlemen, which has been made public. It says, “On Friday of this week, the House of Commons will be debating a Bill which attempts to address some of the difficulties resulting from the Brexit divorce agreements between the EU and the UK, which might be of interest to readers. In 2019, we proposed a solution which would have obviated any need for these complicated and divisive legal manoeuvres. The UK and the EU could have respected each other’s positions and saved everyone a great deal of time and effort. The Financial Times characterised the proposal as a ‘win-win solution’. Regrettably, it was not followed.” I echo that: regrettably, it was not followed. Why was it not followed? Because the politics took over. Instead of looking for a workable, practical border solution, the politics of making the United Kingdom pay for leaving the EU took over. That is how we got into this morass of a pernicious imposition through the border.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member was the Health Minister in Northern Ireland and knows all about that, so I will gladly give way to him.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member might be interested to know that the growth area of the Northern Ireland economy is the services sector, which is the one sector not included by the protocol—it is outside all that. The one sector that is outside the protocol is increasing. There is a clear message in that.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I only wish that the laws for Northern Ireland were made in this Parliament, or in our devolved institutions. If the hon. Member has been listening at all, surely he has understood that there are 300 vast areas—they are not self-contained; they are expanding, and have already been expanded—on which laws are made in a foreign Parliament. That is the fundamental point. If we want a trade deal with the United States, we have to show that it will be a bona fide trade deal with the United Kingdom, not with a surrogate of the EU through a back door that is wide open.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  That is absolutely right, and in Northern Ireland we suffer the consequences of those aggressive political agendas every day. If the Government are saying, “This is fine; there is nothing to see here. We don’t need to fix anything,” then they are not just insulting the intelligence of those of us who introduced the Bill, but saying to my constituents, “You can carry on being second-class citizens.” The Government cannot say to my constituents, “You are equal citizens, but you will not be governed by British laws.” That is what the Government are saying to my constituents in North Antrim and to people across Northern Ireland. “You have equal citizenship, but some are more equal than others. Some will be ruled by the laws that this Parliament makes, or by those that the devolved Assemblies make, but you will be ruled by laws that someone else makes for you, and be grateful for it.” That is where we have got to on this issue. It is not just insulting but frankly unacceptable for the people of Northern Ireland to be treated in this way. Given the Government’s enthusiasm to maintain the unworkable status quo, they should reflect on the fact that there is about to be a new President of the United States who has made it very plain that he is in tariff mode. If he carries through his tariffs, this United Kingdom Government will need a trade deal. Why would a President of the United States do a trade deal with the United Kingdom if the UK has a back door that is open to the EU? That is the consequence of this protocol. We do not have a secure international trade border; the border with the EU is porous, and by all reports, Mr Trump is pretty adverse to the EU. Why would he ever do a deal with the United Kingdom with that back door open? Should this Government not take the opportunity presented by this Bill to say, “We will fix this arrangement, and then we can convince the Americans that we are a safe and secure partner in a trade deal”? So long as the protocol exists, we cannot give the United States of America that certainty. It is in the national interest, the Government’s interest and our trading interest to fix this arrangement, so that we can pursue a trade deal with the Americans—who, at the end of the day, are our best friends in all this—on the best possible terms.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Those of us who are looking for a solution are supporters of this Bill, because we cannot go on as we are. Those who think that it is okay to subjugate part of their own territory are opposed to this Bill. They are quite content with the colonisation of part of our territory. In constitutional terms, where we have ended up is that Northern Ireland is no longer a full part of the United Kingdom. Why? It is because we are not our own masters in 300 areas of law and that a foreign jurisdiction makes those laws. What does that create? It creates what is called, in constitutional terms, a condominium: Northern Ireland is ruled in part by UK laws and in part by foreign laws. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy) finds that hilarious—sorry, it is not hilarious to be subjected to that.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will deal with that more fully, but for now I will say that the trade that matters the most to Northern Ireland is with our biggest partner, Great Britain. That is the source of the overwhelming majority of our raw materials that keep our manufacturing industry going, but as a result of this pernicious Irish sea border, that trade is fettered. All raw materials have to pass through the full ambit of an international customs border. If the hon. Member’s constituents envy the position of my constituents, they really need to reassess the situation, as does he. It is nothing to envy.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I agree absolutely. We already see the consequences. [ Interruption. ] Again, this seems to be a matter of humour to some on the Government Benches. Increasingly, we see that GB suppliers simply stop supplying, because they will not put themselves through the rigours of the customs code, documentary declarations and everything else. It is very difficult for anyone trying to do business in Northern Ireland. In the main, small and medium-sized businesses do not have the resources to employ the extra 10 staff that a big business might to meet the requirements of crossing the Irish sea border. Small suppliers do not have the necessary resources, so they simply stop supplying Northern Ireland. That feeds the continuing diversion of trade.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I acknowledge the hon. Member’s speech, but let me say this: it is no stunt to ask, on behalf of my constituents, for what every other part of this United Kingdom has—the right to be ruled by laws we makes ourselves. It is no stunt to ask for equal citizenship; it is no stunt to say that this United Kingdom—the clue is in the title—should not be partitioned by an international customs border.