Businesses need to make their voices heard on protocol benefits, SDLP MP says

Businesses should make their voices heard and highlight the benefits of Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol, an SDLP MP has said.

Claire Hanna told a pre-election event organised by the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce that there was a need to counter the “poisonous political discourse” around the protocol.

While acknowledging the post-Brexit trading arrangements have caused difficulties, Ms Hanna said the dual access the protocol offered Northern Ireland businesses to sell within the UK internal market and into the EU single market could enable the region to undo some of the economic damage she claimed Brexit had caused.

She criticised the narrative pushed by some opponents of the protocol and branded loyalist anti-protocol rallies as “sinister”.

The MP was addressing the NI Chamber’s Five Leaders, Five Days event in Belfast on behalf of her party leader Colum Eastwood, who was in London due to parliamentary businesses.

“Brexit and the protocol are used to getting star billing in discussions around the economy and business in recent years and there are still of critical importance,” she told an audience of business leaders in the Europa Hotel.

“I think it’s important to start out by acknowledging and being honest about the impact of Brexit on our economy, the OECD predicts, at best, a 2.2% decline in GDP by 2030, a decline of about £1,500 per household, and, at worst, a 7.7% decline, about £5,000 per household.

“It will come as no surprise to any of you that we opposed Brexit, continue to do so, and our view is that our future is better in the European Union.

“It’s also important to acknowledge the difficulties that the protocol have caused, for some of you in this room, also for those whose identity is firmly enshrined in their links and connections to Britain.

“The poisonous political discourse however, the sinister weekly protests and the daily dose of radio interviews do nothing to advance our politics and seek to cast us back years, even decades, to a long-gone era of intransigence, veto and fear.

“The fact is that the protocol offers us an unrivalled opportunity to export into both the UK market and the EU market something that businesses on the rest of this island, or in Britain, will not be able to do.

“That won’t undo the full damage that Brexit has inflicted on our economy, but it will go some way to undoing the damage of the decision made, against the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland, to leave the European Union.

“My direct appeal today in this room is that on the issue of the protocol, that you should make your voice heard.

“Brexit has been a disaster for the Northern Ireland economy and society, but the protocol will undo some of that damage and, while I know it is a challenge in Northern Ireland to take a message of moderation to the airwaves, the option of staying silent, as we saw in the run-up to the Brexit referendum can often result in consequences that are unforeseen and unimaginably more damaging.”