In May, Keir Starmer claimed that his Government’s latest deal with Brussels would ‘reset’ the UK’s relationship with the EU. The Prime Minister said that, among other gains, the Irish Sea border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland would soon soften, thanks to an impending Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement on food and animal products.
Unfortunately, the truth is that the frontier is again about to become substantially harder. The latest tranche of Windsor Framework requirements come into force today, making it even more complicated for companies from the British mainland to send goods to Ulster. This is particularly worrying, because the existing arrangements have already created huge difficulties, causing many firms to withdraw completely from the Northern Irish market.
Indeed, just last week, the Federation of Small Businesses published a survey which demolished the idea that the sea border is an advantage to Northern Ireland’s economy. The report found that over a third of small companies that previously moved goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland (in either direction) have stopped, ‘rather than contend with the Windsor Framework’. Similarly, 58% of respondents experienced moderate or significant difficulties due to the post-Brexit deal, with the proportion in Northern Ireland rising to 78%.
This dismal picture is likely to deteriorate further thanks to the latest regulations.
Under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme, which was part of the so-called ‘green lane’, many meat and dairy products already require ‘Not for EU’ labels to be sold in the province. From today, those regulations will apply to a much more extensive range of food and drink, as well as other products that Brussels claims pose a ‘high risk’ to its market.
In theory, the framework created ‘dual regulation’ for food in Northern Ireland, meaning both British and EU regulations are recognised. In reality, producers and supermarkets must navigate a complicated and bureaucratic system that is about to get worse.
At a Westminster committee session earlier this year, the director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, which represents national supermarket chains and other firms, claimed its members were being treated like dubious wheeler-dealers akin to ‘Del Boy and Rodney’, rather than reputable businesses.
One supermarket said it was completing ‘tens of thousands’ of customs declaration forms to keep groceries moving to Northern Ireland. Meanwhile, trucks containing expensive loads of food are regularly sent back to Scotland because of minor problems with paperwork. Now, the extra complication of ‘Not for EU’ labels will almost certainly make it unviable for more companies to supply to Northern Ireland.
The Government previously planned to address this difficulty by applying the labelling requirements nationwide. Those proposals were dropped, after the industry expressed concerns about extra costs, in a consultation conducted by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. As the July 1 deadline approached, though, the Government suddenly introduced new legislation, the Marking of Retail Goods Regulations 2025, that will allow ministers to impose labelling requirements for certain goods on the whole UK, if there is a ‘potential risk of product delisting from the Northern Ireland market’.
This last-minute intervention suggested the Government was panicked by the prospect of empty shelves in the province. At the same time, its proposed solution will not reassure consumers in Northern Ireland, or unionist opponents of the framework. These powers are at ministers’ discretion and may never be used, even if there is clear evidence of damage to the UK internal market. Smaller companies, with less than 50 employees, will in any case be exempt. Meanwhile, the laws will alarm larger businesses in Great Britain, which could at short notice be subjected to expensive labelling regimes.
This week, the Traditional Unionist Voice leader, and North Antrim MP, Jim Allister, said that the Government’s plans effectively acknowledged that:
The Irish Sea border constitutes a threat to our economic wellbeing, (and) this threat comes directly from the new definition of the Irish Sea border resulting from the Windsor Framework and its Green Lane, which were supposed to remove the border.
Labour’s ad-hoc approach, which tries to mitigate framework problems but does not attempt to remove them, is not confined to labelling.
At the start of 2026, Northern Ireland faces a new veterinary medicine border in the Irish Sea, whose effects the British Veterinary Association (BVA) claims could be ‘potentially devastating’ for human and animal health. So far, a ‘grace period’ has kept veterinary medicines moving from Great Britain to Ulster. This expires at the end of 2025 and the Government has been unable to negotiate an agreement to ensure medicines do not disappear from the Northern Irish market. Instead, Labour recently announced two schemes that it says will maintain supplies. Even Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister, Andrew Muir, who belongs to the fanatically pro-Brussels Alliance Party, expressed disappointment with these plans and suggested the Government was ‘overselling’ them. The BVA called on ministers to provide more ‘certainty’ and ‘detail’ around their proposals.
These are just two examples of the sea border becoming harder now or in coming months. Already in May, the Government implemented rigorous new rules for sending parcels to Northern Ireland, which persuaded many companies to stop supplying the province either permanently or on a temporary basis. From the start of June, pet owners were required to apply for new pet passports, microchip their pets and fill in extra forms to bring animals to Northern Ireland.
The Conservatives at least seemed guilty about the sea border and were clearly reluctant to implement it fully, even if ultimately they did little of substance to get rid of it. In contrast, Labour has enforced the frontier enthusiastically, and the trade minister, Douglas Alexander, recently justified the province’s estrangement from the rest of the UK by referring to its ‘distinctive history, the significance of the Belfast Agreement’ and the imperative of maintaining a ‘hard won peace in Northern Ireland’. This was an unabashed defence of the sea border as a sop to Irish republicans and a declaration that Ulster is considered a ‘place apart’ from the rest of the UK by his Government.
In Northern Ireland, unionists felt understandably let down by successive Tory prime ministers. Despite their instinctive unionism, the Conservatives cut the province off from the rest of the UK to ‘get Brexit done’ and failed to repair this damage later. The idea, though, that the Labour Party would prove a more reliable custodian of the Union has become difficult to support. At best, the Government seems indifferent to Northern Ireland’s problems, and at worst, it supports the ever-hardening Irish Sea border.
Click here to subscribe to our daily briefing – the best pieces from CapX and across the web.
CapX depends on the generosity of its readers. If you value what we do, please consider making a donation.
