The EU’s strategy has been very simple.
If they can keep part of the UK effectively in the EU (and actually it does not matter which part), then the need to prevent the country breaking apart will create an imperative for the rest of the UK to also align with EU law.
As I write there are at least two pieces of legislation currently before Parliament giving effect to this logic in narrow areas together with the imminent prospect of a much more important piece of legislation conceived for the purpose of exploiting it on a more industrial scale.
The two live pieces of legislation are the Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Household Tumble Dryers) Regulations 2026 (SI, 2026, No. 318) and the Windsor Framework (Retail Movement Scheme: Plant Health) (Amendment) Regulations 2026.
In order to understand the tumble dryer regulations, we have to go back to 4 March 2025 when legislation suddenly appeared banning the purchase of new conventional tumble dryers in Northern Ireland from 1 July last year. From that date the only new tumble dryers we have been able to buy in Northern Ireland are heat pump tumble dryers which are significantly more expensive and don’t work in garages in the winter because they only operate at ambient temperatures.
The explanatory notes were very clear about why we were being subject to this ban:
‘Northern Ireland continues to apply EU rules on ecodesign and energy labelling, as per the terms of the Windsor Framework. Accordingly, this instrument makes amendments to the Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products Regulations 2010 (“the 2010 Regulations”) and the 2011 Energy Information Regulations (“the 2011 Regulations”) such that the relevant Schedules refer to the correct, up to date product specific measures that apply in Northern Ireland, so that these can be enforced by the Market Surveillance Authorities.’
However, in the Commons on 31 March 2025 the Minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh, explained that, ostensibly out of regard for the integrity of the UK Internal Market, the Government was looking at using the law change in Northern Ireland to justify aligning the rest of the UK with the EU tumble dryer diktat:
‘…it is very likely that Great Britain will seek to meet similar standards. As such, we will be consulting as soon as possible on the merits of mirroring the new EU regulations, with the first consultation, on tumble dryers, expected to be launched shortly. Our intention is to apply the measures on a UK-wide basis and maintain the UK’s internal market.’
The upshot of this is the Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Household Tumble Dryers) Regulations 2026 (SI, 2026, No. 318) lying before Parliament today.
The second set of regulations impose the same EU laws that have already been applied to Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework, to Great Britain in relation to certain pests and the importing of fruit.
They are particularly outrageous for two reasons:
First, you would think that if Great Britain agreed to submit to EU law in relation to pests and fruit, and thus the law already imposed on Northern Ireland, that goods that were only allowed to enter GB subject to EU pest control legislation, would be allowed to move freely from one part of the UK, England, to another, Northern Ireland, but no. What the EU is generously offering through the Windsor Framework (Retail Movement Scheme: Plant Health) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 is that if England, Wales and Scotland bow the knee to its laws then when the imports - which have had nothing happen to them other than move from one part of the UK to another - move from GB to NI, they will be subject to a less divisive international border experience. But it will still be an international border experience and not a domestic border experience and thus require an export number and the filling in of customs and international Sanitary-Pyto-Sanitary (SPS) paperwork, albeit simpler than would otherwise be the case.
Second, the offer of this alternative less demanding border experience (which is actually more demanding in other ways) is granted through Article 9 of EU Regulation 2023/1231, the full title of which is: ‘Regulation (EU) 2023/1231 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2023 on specific rules relating to the entry into Northern Ireland from other parts of the United Kingdom of certain consignments of retail goods, plants for planting, seed potatoes, machinery and certain vehicles operated for agricultural or forestry purposes, as well as non-commercial movements of certain pet animals into Northern Ireland.’ It’s a bit of a mouthful but worth citing word for word because it demonstrates that it is a piece of EU legislation made two years after we left the EU that governs not the EU but the UK and what can move from one part of the UK to another. You couldn’t really make it up!!
While both the above pieces of legislation seek to use the fact that Northern Ireland is subject to EU law to justify then imposing EU law on the rest of the UK, thereby sabotaging Brexit across the whole country in specific areas, it is important to appreciate that the real presenting challenge comes in the form of the first bill mentioned in the recent King’s Speech, the European Partnership Bill.
Although the Bill has not yet been published, its contents have been widely trailed and the Government’s explanatory document published alongside the King’s Speech provides quite a bit of detail. The plan is that the Bill effectively consists of two parts: the first dynamically aligning Great Britain with EU law in three specific areas, the second making provisions that will enable ministers to then extend dynamic alignment to other areas in the future as they see fit.
The critical point about the three areas that will be on the face of the Bill is that they provide the Government with much needed cover if they are accused of trying to reverse Brexit. In addition to undermining Brexit each of the three provisions tackles some of the most destructive aspects of the border with which the EU has divided us. While the SPS proposals don’t remove the international SPS border, they help remove border friction by aligning SPS law both sides of the border. The Emissions Trading Scheme, meanwhile, provides the means of avoiding Northern Ireland’s subjection to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Regulations 2023, which would have massively compounded the division of our country by extending it from being a customs and international SPS border to also being a carbon border. Finally, placing the Great Britain in the EU Single Electricity Market will remove the electricity border within the UK that has caused electricity prices across the whole island of Ireland to increase by some 20%. The Republic has no direct connection to the continent for electricity other than through GB and so the electricity border harms both jurisdictions. Thus, the European Partnership Bill has been designed in such a way so as to help the Government bat away the assertion that they are sabotaging Brexit with the point that they are trying to shore up the UK Internal Market.
However, for all the Government’s suggestion that the provisions of the European Partnership Bill mitigate the destructive impact of the border, the Bill does not and cannot touch the customs border. Indeed, new customs charges are coming into force on parcels from 1 July. And then, of course, we have to confront the difficulty that all the above ‘solutions’ involve greatly compounding the democratic deficit associated with EU membership, cementing the whole UK into a neo-colonial relationship with the EU.
