Windsor Framework no solution to horticulture problems - Lockhart

The party agriculture spokesperson made the call following consultation with local garden centres.

Carla Lockhart said: “When the Windsor Framework was announced in February, the Prime Minister made a range of statements as he sought to spin his way through the many questions that arose from that agreement.

“It was portrayed that the Framework would address the barriers to trade on the Irish Sea that had been introduced by the Protocol.

“Announcing the Framework, in his speech alongside the President of the EU Commission, the Prime Minister said ‘The same quintessentially British products like trees, plants, and seed potatoes – will again be available in Northern Ireland’s garden centres’.

“Yet, in my engagement with local garden centres, they are telling me this is not the case. In their real time experience, they say that what the Prime Minister told the watching media and people in Northern Ireland that the Windsor Framework would accomplish is simply not happening.

“The reality is that today, GB suppliers to Northern Ireland Garden Centres are not able to trade as they did prior to the Protocol or the Windsor Framework. Suppliers in GB have not changed their trading position,” she added.

“The Prime Ministers promise that the ‘same quintessentially British products like trees, plants, and seed potatoes… will again be available in Northern Ireland’s garden centres’ is simply not being proved to be true.

“This is bad for these horticulture businesses and garden centres, but also bad for consumers with less choice in the local marketplace.

“This is why the Government must listen to the concerns of businesses in Northern Ireland and address these barriers to trade. This isn’t just the DUP saying this – it is businesses saying it.

“As Parliament resumes soon, the Government must act with haste to resolve these issues, restore frictionless trade, and deliver a pro-business, pro-consumer outcome for Northern Ireland. That is what I will be working on until it is delivered,” Ms Lockhart ended.