Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has secured a high-level meeting with senior government officials from London. Senior Cabinet Office, DEFRA and HMRC officials will visit her constituency for a meeting with local businesses hit by the Windsor Framework/Protocol.

The meeting follows sustained problems for firms importing used agricultural machinery from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, and is an opportunity to put front-line evidence directly in front of top civil servants.

The agenda will centre on used farm machinery, the parcels border, agri-food and horticulture, and the mounting impediments to trade in the car industry and manufacturing.
 
Carla Lockhart MP said: “The Windsor Framework and the Protocol arrangements that underpin it are not abstract policy. They are a daily problem for businesses located in Upper Bann and right across Northern Ireland.

“I have called it what it is before, a bureaucratic burden, a constitutional compromise, and an economic noose, and nothing I’ve heard from government since has disproved that. Officials are coming from London at my request because the reality on the ground can no longer be shrugged off.
 
“If you research it, you’ll see the evidence: the Federation of Small Businesses has documented widespread disruption, with a majority of GB–NI traders reporting moderate to significant challenges, and over a third ceasing trade rather than drown in red tape. That is not friction at the margins that is the UK internal market fracturing before our eyes.”
 
The MP added: “My meeting is about taking the unvarnished truth directly to the people who work on policies and procedures: the real problems, the real impact, and practical solutions.

“We will focus on the parcels border, where new customs requirements have been biting and costing; on agri-food and horticulture; on used farm and forestry machinery which has become a byword for needless bureaucracy; and on manufacturing and the car industry, where supply chains are being throttled by compliance theatre.”
 
Concluding, Ms Lockhart said: “Northern Ireland’s economic future is in the balance under this infliction. I have always said it is a problem; I will continue to say it is a problem; and I will keep bringing both the issues and the solutions to the table for the businesses I represent in Upper Bann. With officials in the room, there will be no ambiguity: they will leave knowing exactly the issues at hand and what must change. I thank them for taking time and making the effort to visit and hear first-hand. I also thank the businesses involved in this effort.”