Business

Protocol will leave 'gaps on the shelves' at Christmas, says M&S chairman

The chairman of Marks & Spencer has warned that some products will be excluded from Northern Ireland’s shelves this Christmas due to problems with the post-Brexit agreement on the region.

Archie Norman, who has requested a meeting with Brexit minister Lord Frost, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the Northern Ireland Protocol will cause “gaps on the shelves”.

“This Christmas, I can tell you already, we’re having to make decisions to delist product for Northern Ireland because it’s simply not worth the risk of trying to get it through,” the former Tory MP said.

“We’ve already made that decision. We’re waiting to see how serious it’s going to be but if it’s anything like southern Ireland (the Republic of Ireland), and at the moment it’s set to be, then it’s going to be very, very serious for customers.”

He called for a “common sense approach to enforcement focused on the ends, which is protecting consumers, not the bureaucratic means”.

In May, the retailer said it has been exposed to additional costs following Brexit, revealing £27-33m of extra costs linked to operations on the island of Ireland.

Food products in particular have become more expensive to move from Britain into the island of Ireland due to new certification requirements around products of animal origin.

Ireland’s European affairs minister Thomas Byrne insisted a post-Brexit solution on Northern Ireland must be found within the confines of the existing agreement on the region.

Asked about a reported British proposal for an “honesty box” approach to checks, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re going to listen carefully to what the British Government have to say.

“We’re willing to discuss any creative solutions within the confines of the protocol but we have to recognise as well that Britain decided itself to leave the single market of the European Union, to apply trade rules, to apply red tape to its goods that are leaving Britain, to goods that are coming into Britain.”

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has told his Dublin counterpart that “pragmatism” is needed to mend the issues being caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol, as the UK prepares to announce its own proposed solution.

In a phone call with Taoiseach Micheál Martin yesterday, the Brtish prime minister called for the European Union to have an open mind to possible solutions required to address the “serious challenges” to trade between Northern Ireland and Britain.