Skip to content

Northern Ireland Protocol: Don't expect perfect fix, says Major

Getty Images Sir John MajorGetty Images
Nobody will get everything they want from the negotiations, warns Sir John Major

There should be no expectation that the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiations will lead to a "perfect" solution, a former prime minister has warned.

Sir John Major was prime minister and Conservative Party leader from 1990 until 1997.

He was also involved in key talks that helped pave the way for the signing of the Good Friday peace agreement.

"Nobody can expect to get all of what they're asking for in a negotiation," said Sir John.

He has previously called the negotiations that led to the Northern Ireland Protocol as "one of the least well done" processes in modern history.

Sir John appeared before Westminster's Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

He told MPs that there were "deficiencies" in the protocol that needed to be addressed and that he was hopeful of a joint solution between the UK and EU.

But he warned: "To reach an accommodation requires unionists and nationalists to be prepared to get a great deal of what they're asking for but not all of it.

"We need them to accept that any agreement may not be perfect - you have to find somewhere in the middle where everyone accedes to something they don't wholly like."

The protocol is a part of the UK-EU Brexit deal that keeps Northern Ireland aligned with some EU trade rules.

It keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods, avoiding the need for a hard border with the Irish Republic after Brexit.

However it also creates a new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, something the EU accepts is causing difficulties for many businesses.

Map of the the UK showing how goods travelling from GB into NI and onward to the Republic of Ireland.

Some unionists say it is also undermining Northern Ireland's place in the UK.

In protest against the protocol, Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) resigned as Northern Ireland's first minister in February 2022, collapsing the power-sharing agreement.

Since then there has been no devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Talks between London and Brussels have been intensifying in a bid to reach agreement but as yet there has been no breakthrough.