11-07-2025
Brussels demands UK builds border posts it does not need
Britain has spent £400 million on border posts that will not be needed because of Sir Keir Starmer's reset deal with the EU.
Post-Brexit checkpoints will be rendered largely obsolete because the Prime Minister has agreed to align the UK with EU plant and animal health (SPS) rules.
However, the EU insists that work must continue on four incomplete Northern Irish border control posts.
It says they must be operational before it will finalise the reset deal, even though SPS alignment will make most controls unnecessary.
The Government has calculated that the boost in trade from the reset deal will far exceed the money wasted on the Northern Irish posts.
More than 100 border control posts for SPS checks were built after Brexit, including 41 major sites such as in Sevington in Kent, Dover, Holyhead and Liverpool.
Some £200 million of public money was spent, with a further £120 million invested by ports, which now want millions in compensation.
Work on the four major border control posts in Northern Ireland is on track to meet a government deadline of July.
The Government has committed a maximum of £192.3 million for those facilities, of which £71 million had been spent by February this year.
Northern Ireland continues to follow hundreds of EU rules in order to avoid a hard border with Ireland, including the SPS regulations to which Britain will now adhere.
During the Brexit negotiations, Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach at the time, warned that a hard border would threaten a return to violence in Northern Ireland.
Checks on British animals and goods entering Northern Ireland were introduced in a new Irish Sea border under the Windsor Framework, negotiated by Rishi Sunak in 2023.
The four SPS posts at Belfast, Larne, Warrenpoint and Foyle were a binding treaty commitment made in 2019 but not fulfilled by previous governments.
Sir Keir promised to complete them in a document of common understanding agreed before the UK-EU summit at which his reset deal was announced.
EU diplomatic sources said ensuring the posts in Northern Ireland were finished regardless of the reset was a red line for the bloc, after Boris Johnson and Liz Truss both threatened to renege on the 2019 treaty when each was prime minister. This badly damaged EU capitals' trust in the UK.
A diplomat told The Telegraph: 'The Commission will keep the UK to full, faithful and timely implementation of the Windsor Framework. It's a point of principle to the Commission and they have member states' backing.'
A European Commission spokesman said: 'The existing agreements remain the corner-stone of our bilateral relationship.'
But he added: 'The EU has not made reference to any preconditions in relation to possible future agreements with the UK.'
Labour believes there will be no reset deal, unless the Northern Irish posts are completed, and that the benefits far outweigh the wasted costs.
It argues the reset deal will add nearly £9 billion to the UK economy by 2040, reduce Irish sea border checks and make it easier to sell shellfish and fish to the EU.
A government spokesman said: 'Our new SPS Agreement, once agreed and implemented, will cut paperwork and checks for goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
'In order to secure that agreement, it is vital that we implement the existing arrangements for the Windsor Framework and we will continue to work closely with businesses to support them in doing so.'
In a sign of its confidence that the deal will be done, the Government decided to waive new controls on EU imports of fruit and vegetables that were due to come in on July 2.
However, EU sources said there was no quid pro quo with Brussels for a more flexible approach to the SPS posts in Northern Ireland.
The extent to which the posts will be rendered obsolete will depend on the final SPS deal.
There were already some checks on British animals arriving in Northern Ireland before Brexit, and these will continue.
The posts are extremely controversial with unionist politicians who see them as a symbol of a treaty they believe loosens the region's ties with the rest of the UK and makes a united Ireland more likely.
Despite alignment meaning Britain and Northern Ireland will once again follow the same EU SPS rules, unionists say there are still hundreds of European laws the region adheres to that the rest of the UK does not.
DUP peer Lord Dodds said: 'Brussels is also insisting on 'Not for EU' labelling being extended from July 1 on all fruit, vegetables, fish, meat and dairy products entering Northern Ireland even though the reset deal may do away their need.
'Their approach to the UK is one of maximum confrontation whereas the Starmer displays abject acquiescence. The EU insistence on border posts is because trade within the UK between GB and Northern Ireland is under their control.'
On the British mainland, some border control posts are already being mothballed or put up for sale.
The Sevington Inland Border Facility in Ashford, Kent, was built in 2021 to carry out checks on up to 1,300 lorries a day arriving from the Continent at a cost of about £154 million.
The Government is reportedly in discussions with Eurotunnel and the Port of Dover to buy or repurpose the facility.
Last month, the Welsh Government said a £51-million border control post would sit empty until the outcome of UK-EU negotiations was certain. Two other sites in Wales have been scrapped.
