Windsor Framework: Belfast court to deliver judgement on whether Rwanda law can fully apply in Northern Ireland

The policy has been at the centre of legal wrangling over whether aspects of the legislation are legally enforceable here because of the Windsor Framework (WF) .

Concerns have been raised – including by DUP MPs Gavin Robinson and Sammy Wilson – that EU rights applicable in Northern Ireland under the post-Brexit deal would hinder government legislation such as the Rwanda Bill.

A judgement is due to be handed down at the Royal Courts of Justice detailing which – if any – aspects of the law are inoperable in Northern Ireland.

The government maintains that the legislation will apply to all of the United Kingdom.

The Windsor Framework affects much more than the trade in goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland – as it guarantees certain EU rights here post-Brexit.

Earlier this year, a High Court judgement in Belfast on the government’s controversial Legacy Act contradicted a claim in the Safeguarding the Union deal struck with the DUP that the Windsor Framework applies only to trading goods. The documents adds that “the vast majority of public policy is entirely untouched by it”. The legacy judgment said that two parts of the legislation are “incompatible with… article 2 of the Windsor Framework and should be disapplied”. These included the government’s attempts to exclude evidence from legal proceedings and the prohibition of criminal enforcement action.

Loyalist anti-protocol activist Jamie Bryson – who warned of the effect of the WF on legislation here – said the government had always denied it would affect UK laws here.

“If the High Court tomorrow - in what is a significant constitutional moment - follows previous judgments and rules the Protocol does override the Rwanda Bill in respect of Northern Ireland then the Irish Sea trade border will become the Irish Sea trade and immigration border, and another key plank of the Donaldson Deal will be exposed as fundamentally false”. He said the DUP “own” government claims as they endorsed the “Surrendering the Union document”.