The Ulster Unionist Party has warned that the Windsor Framework continues to create unnecessary complexity and regulatory divergence, leaving Northern Ireland businesses and communities in an impossible position.

Lord Empey, a Member of the House of Lords Committee, commented following the publication of the House of Lords Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee report ‘Northern Ireland after Brexit: Strengthening Northern Ireland’s voice in the context of the Windsor Framework’:

“The Government has failed to have all the divergence created between regulations applying in Northern Ireland that do not apply in Great Britain listed in a single location and constantly updated so that businesses and the public can see what is really happening. 

“The organogram on pages 24 and 25 says it all: a totally unsatisfactory relationship with hugely complicated processes and engagements between London and Brussels, Belfast and Dublin.

“These arrangements are totally unsatisfactory.

“Those who led the charge into a badly negotiated Brexit, against the advice of the Ulster Unionist Party, and who today complain the most about the Windsor Framework, have a lot to answer for.

“In the Prime Minister's reset with the EU, this disaster needs to be a top priority in forthcoming negotiations”.