A potentially divisive Stormont vote on the contentious post-Brexit trade arrangements could take place on the assembly’s final sitting of the year.
The Irish News understands that MLAs will potentially return from their Christmas recess on Tuesday December 17 to vote on the continued operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, unless a vote can be scheduled beforehand.
The vote, which is expected to reignite bitter divisions between Stormont’s pro- and anti-Brexit blocs, was agreed as part of the original 2020 withdrawal agreement between the UK and EU.
The Labour administration has previously confirmed that it will uphold its predecessor’s commitments to give MLAs a say in whether to continue to implement the post-Brexit trade arrangements.
Preparations for the so-called democratic consent mechanism will begin in the coming days with Secretary of State Hilary Benn expected to write to the first and deputy first ministers asking them to trigger a vote before the end of November.
If the Stormont leaders fail to table a motion, that responsibility will fall to any member of the assembly.
In the event of no MLA bringing forward the motion, the assembly speaker must intervene.
In a departure from established Stormont system, the vote does not require cross-community support but if passed only with a simple majority, the British government has committed to commissioning an independent review of the Windsor Framework and its implications.
Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP have all signalled that they will support retention of the framework’s articles 5-10 which relate to the EU single market, while unionist parties are expected to vote against.
In the unlikely event of the motion falling, the revised protocol will cease to apply after two years. If it is passed by simple majority there will be another vote in four years’ time, whereas cross-community support will see a second vote delayed for a further eight years.
Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole told The Irish News that the vote on the protocol was “critical”.
He said the SDLP supported “arrangements that reflect our unique circumstances and offer us unique opportunities”.
“We will be working and advocating for an endorsement of those arrangements for as long as they are needed,” he said.
“If there is a review put in place after the consent vote, we will be advocating that that review takes into account not simply the views of those opposed to the protocol- as was the case during the Tory-DUP privatised negotiation - but also the views and aspirations of the pro-EU majority.”
