Jim Allister accuses Government of ‘great deception’ over Irish Sea Border at PMQs

North Antrim MP Jim Allister

North Antrim MP Jim Allister has accused the UK Government of presiding over a “great deception” on the Irish Sea border, telling the House of Commons that promises made two years ago have unravelled into what he described as growing EU control over Northern Ireland.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions on Tuesday (28 January), the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader marked the second anniversary of assurances from the previous Conservative government and the Democratic Unionist Party that post-Brexit barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland had been removed.

Addressing the Prime Minister, Mr Allister said those claims had been exposed as false by a series of new restrictions introduced in recent months.

He told MPs:

“This week, marched two years from the attempted great deception of the former government and the DUP that the Irish Sea border was gone, no checks, no paperwork, was the strap line. And yet, within the first few months of this new year alone, we’ve had imposed a veterinary medicine border, and we’ve had a ban on new GB cars being sold in Northern Ireland. And now the EU says that from July, it plans to impose a three Euro charge on small parcels coming into Northern Ireland. What sort of government allows a foreign power to impose a tax on parcels coming into its own territory?”

The comments come amid renewed political tension over the operation of the Windsor Framework, agreed between the UK and the EU in 2021, which governs post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.

New EU legislation added to Windsor Framework

Mr Allister was also responding to an announcement made earlier on Tuesday by the Minister for Europe, Nick Thomas-Symonds, confirming that the Government would not oppose the addition of new EU legislation to the Windsor Framework.

The measure in question — EU Vehicle Type Approval Regulations, Regulation (EU) 2025/14 — concerns the regulation of non-road mobile machinery, including equipment commonly used in construction, agriculture, gardening and municipal material handling.

Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland remains subject to certain areas of EU law. Mr Allister argued that today’s decision demonstrates that the scope of EU influence is not static, but continuing to expand.

He said:

“For people who think that the extent of our subjection to EU law is fixed, today provides another example of how the EU noose is tightening, as more and more areas of law making are taken from us and our colonial status is underlined to an even greater degree.

“Taken by itself, one might not be too worried, but today’s announcement constitutes a further erosion of the dignity that we once enjoyed as a self-governing democracy.”

Criticism of ‘democratic mechanisms’

The TUV leader also renewed his criticism of the so-called democratic safeguards within the Windsor Framework, including the Stormont Brake and the Applicability Motion mechanism.

Mr Allister said:

“The TUV always said that the so-called ‘democratic mechanisms’ afforded Northern Ireland through the Windsor Brake and the Windsor Applicability motion mechanism were a sham.

“Instead of providing us with a voice in the legislature making the laws, they just seek to fob us off with the dubious second class right to try to object to laws that have already made for us by a foreign Parliament.”

He argued that even where objections are raised, the ultimate decision rests outside Northern Ireland.

“The word ‘try’ is key because even if the UK Government stood by Northern Ireland, the final decision in relation to the Stormont Brake would be made by international arbitration which could find against Northern Ireland democracy and in favour of the EU.”

Mr Allister said he had not anticipated the possibility that Westminster would block Northern Ireland from even considering new EU laws.

“One scenario that did not even occur to us, however, was that the UK Government would deny us the option of at least considering a new EU law through an Applicability Motion.”

He claimed today’s announcement showed that ministers had “short-circuited” even these limited safeguards, drawing parallels with the Government’s handling of objections to the Critical Raw Materials – Regulation 2024/1252 last year.

“When a Government is no longer prepared to defend the basic democratic rights of its people in the face of the demands of 27 other states, it loses its moral authority and brings shame upon itself and the nation as a whole.”

Wider UK impact and cost concerns

Mr Allister also warned that the implications of the decision extend beyond Northern Ireland, particularly in relation to vehicle costs across the UK.

He said:

“Today’s statement should be of real concern to the wider UK because it re-iterates the Government’s commitment to align all GB Vehicle Type Approval with that of Northern Ireland and thus the EU, something that the National Franchised Dealers Federation told Stormont in July was making cars £4000 more expensive to buy in Northern Ireland and more expensive to tax.”

In a statement accompanying the decision, Europe Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the Government would seek to avoid new barriers within the UK internal market.

He said:

“In order to provide additional confidence that manufacturers and traders will not face new regulatory barriers to placing goods on the Northern Ireland market, the Government commits to taking any necessary steps to protect the UK’s internal market, including considering equivalent measures in Great Britain where necessary.”

Human and political context

For unionist critics of the Windsor Framework, the latest developments reinforce long-held concerns that Northern Ireland’s constitutional and democratic position within the UK has been weakened.

For businesses and consumers, particularly in sectors reliant on machinery, vehicles and small parcel deliveries, the debate has tangible consequences — from higher costs to regulatory uncertainty.

As the UK Government seeks to balance post-Brexit stability with internal market cohesion, Mr Allister’s intervention highlights the continuing political volatility surrounding Northern Ireland’s place within the UK and its relationship with the EU.