Catherine challenged the Prime Minister on his approach to Northern Ireland negotiations.

Yesterday the Government brought forward the long-awaited agreement on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Speaking in the House of Commons, Catherine welcome that an agreement had been reached but warned that the damaging approach, through the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, had undermined business confidence and harmed Britain’s reputation.

Adding that this approach must not be repeated through the Retained EU Law Bill, which currently would allow Ministers to amend or repeal all legislation carried over from our membership with the EU, consisting of over 2400 pieces of law, with next to no Parliamentary scrutiny, and a completely unrealistic timeframe in which to process it all. Doing so threatens a regulatory cliff edge that creates a wealth of uncertainty for businesses.

Questioning Rishi Sunak, Catherine asked: “in this new spirit of renegotiating decisions and taking a more mature approach, will the Prime Minister also commit to reconsidering the Government’s approach on that issue?”

Following the debate, Catherine commented:

“Whilst this agreement is clearly welcome, the reckless approach that the Government has taken allowing uncertainty to fester has caused great harm to businesses. In putting the interests of hard-line members of his own backbenches over those of businesses in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, successive Conservative Prime Ministers have damaged Britain’s international standing.

“This reckless approach has been proved to fail, yet the Retained EU Law Bill threatens to repeat it. It will cause enormous uncertainty, leaving us with no idea of what our laws will be in 12 months’ time whilst leaving us exposed to a wave of deregulation taking away long fought for rights and protections, which is why everyone from the CBI to the TUC to the RSPB is opposed to it”