Ferguson brands Brexit a ‘child of the DUP’ and says Windsor Framework protects against its ‘worst excesses’
Ciara Ferguson has branded Brexit ‘a child of the DUP’ during a debate on a motion to end the operation of the Windsor Framework.
"It has to be said that, to me, the motion reads as little more than the TUV tail wagging the DUP dog, to be honest. Members, as you are all well aware, next June will mark a decade — 10 years — since the Brexit referendum in which the majority of people in the North voted to remain in the EU.
“The majority of our citizens in the North were not beguiled by those who found themselves at the behest of Boris and the Brexiteers, yet, here we are again, listening to a DUP motion that refuses to acknowledge that the challenges about which they now complain are in fact the very outworkings of that failed project, which we were all well warned about," said the Sinn Féin MLA.
She was speaking to a motion tabled by DUP MLA David Brooks that opposed the continued operation of the Windsor Framework, a mechanism introduced in 2023 to supersede the Brexit Protocol and remove red-tape on goods flowing between Britain and the north.
The Protocol, and subsequently the Windsor Framework, were agreed after the campaign by the DUP and British Conservatives for the UK to leave the EU, the internal market and customs union.
Mr. Brooks’ motion stated that ‘the present arrangements do not command cross-community support’ and expressed ‘alarm that a recent UK-wide survey led by the Federation of Small Businesses found that 58 per cent of businesses were having moderate to significant challenges as a result of the framework and that over a third had already ceased trade in Northern Ireland’.
Ms. Ferguson said: “Economists, commentators, academics and organisations all warned of the many potential negative economic and social consequences of Brexit.
"Some even defined the Brexiteers' choice to advocate a project that would increase trade barriers and hinder free movement as supporting self-inflicted recession.
“Brexit is a child of the DUP. You were repeatedly warned that it would be bad for the North and our economy. If we cast our minds back to the publication of a report by the Department for the Economy in July 2019 that warned of a possible 40,000-plus job losses, we remember that one DUP politician said that they could live with that. Another stated:
“‘I wouldn't care what sort of situation I face as long as I'm out of Europe.’
“Those who so whimsically dismissed the qualitative advice from so many sectors have a brass neck when they continue to complain about the outworking of the wheels that they set in motion.”
Ms. Ferguson said the electorate locally voted overwhelmingly to remain.
"Our people know only too well the continued impact of Brexit on our economy, trade, small businesses, opportunities for students, our young people and even the stronger collective vigilance concerning human rights and standards in a post-Brexit era.
"Equally, however, our people know that unionism is no longer the monolith that it once was. Its electoral majority in the Assembly and at Westminster is gone.
"A majority in our local Assembly has instead voted to continue our post-Brexit trade arrangements and recognise the need to maintain the hard-fought and hard-won protections against Brexit's worst excesses,” she said.