Bow Group chairman Ben Harris-Quinney has warned that the loss of Northern Ireland would “demonstrate a shocking failure of governance, which will be used to denigrate Brexit”.
The Bow Group chairman made the remarks after European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic threatened London with “all measures at [Brussels’] disposal” if the UK followed through on unilateral plans related to the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The measure would override Brussels’ rules that sees the British nation effectively forced to remain in the EU’s Single Market and separated from the rest of the United Kingdom by a trade border in the Irish Sea.
Mr Harris-Quinney told the Express: “Brexit offered an opportunity to do things differently.
“But the Government that has been in power since hasn’t taken advantage of that, and furthermore made a number of bizarre and naïve errors.
“If it leads to the loss of Northern Ireland it will demonstrate a shocking failure of governance, which will be used to denigrate Brexit.
“We know Britain is more than capable of governing itself, it once governed a quarter of the planet, but this government is in danger of failing to meet the standards of their forebears.”
The Bow Group chairman added that the EU’s behaviour regarding Northern Ireland should act as a wake-up call and prompt the government to reconsiders its international partnerships, putting British interests first.
He said: “Long-term, the UK needs to completely change its foreign policy approach to stringently focus on Britain’s national interest.
“If the EU is aggressive on issues like Northern Ireland and indeed many questions relating to our national integrity and security, we will need to re-evaluate many of our partnerships, and seek alternative partners.
“If Britain is able to discard old globalist ways of thinking and start using our full might towards our national interest, then the future will be bright in Northern Ireland and far beyond.”
Harris-Quinney concluded by observing that while Boris Johnson’s government has delivered Brexit, it is failing to deliver on other expectations the British voters had, including on reducing immigration.
“So far, however, the Government has passed Brexit but continued to function in the opposite way the British people voted for.
“We have had more mass immigration, more progressive green rubbish, and more weak negotiation than we did when we were in the EU.
“Lord Frost took the decision to resign from the Government, having perhaps the most intimate experience of Brexit and the Northern Irish Protocol, because he couldn’t support the direction of travel.
“If his and our warnings are not heeded, this isn’t corrected, and he is proven right, the Government will make a disastrous hash of Brexit and all else,” Mr Harris-Quinney said.
Read the full article here at the Express
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