Sorry, but this deal does not restore British sovereignty

So, does the framework resolve the protocol’s economic separation of Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and restore our sovereignty over every inch of our territory, from Brixton to Birmingham to Belfast? No. Not a bit of it. It provides a technical fix to some of the more onerous customs barriers erected between GB and NI, but it does not resolve the fundamental questions raised by Brexit. Namely, who rules? Us or them? Are we sovereign or not? …

Northern Ireland will still be treated differently to the rest of the UK. It will still be subject to EU oversight in a way that grates against every principle of sovereignty and democracy. Sunak made this clear at the press conference. ‘The only EU law that applies to Northern Ireland under the Framework is the minimum necessary to avoid a hard border with Ireland’, he said. Imagine a tweak to that wording. Imagine if our PM said, ‘The only French law that applies to Bristol…’ or ‘The only American law that Edinburgh has to abide by…’. We’d be shocked, no? And so we should be shocked that Northern Ireland, a part of the UK, will be governed by foreign laws, if fewer than previously. The EU even makes it clear that it will have the right to discuss with Westminster any ‘future UK legislation regarding goods’ that might impact on arrangements in Northern Ireland.

Then there’s the European Court of Justice, and the question of whether it will still enjoy some jurisdiction in Northern Ireland. It will. Both Ursula von der Leyen and the EU document on the Windsor Framework baldly state that the ECJ ‘remains the sole and ultimate arbiter of EU law’. This is because there are areas of trade and life in NI where the EU will still rule, and where the EU’s court might need to be brought to bear on controversies. A foreign court ruling in a sovereign nation? That’s not a sovereign nation.

[I’ll have more on this later, but this is the result of irreconcilable commitments, which were clearly apparent during Brexit but ignored and glossed over. — Ed]