with permission, mr speaker, i would like to make a seven on the northern ireland protocol. after weeks of negotiations, today we have made a decisive breakthrough. the windsor framework delivers free floating trade within the whole night kingdom. it protects northern ireland s place in our union and it safeguards sovereignty for the people of northern ireland. by achieving all this, it preserves the delicate balance inherent in the belfast good friday agreement. mr speaker, does what many said could not be done. removing thousands of pages of eu laws and making permanent weekly binding changes to the protocol treaty itself. that is the protocol treaty itself. that is the breakthrough we have made, those are the changes we will deliver, now is the time to move forward as one united kingdom. mr speaker, before i turn to the details, let us remind ourselves why this matters. it matters because at the heart of the belfast good friday agreement and the reason it has endured for a
guarantee in the belfast agreement. with these stormont break creating an effective cross committee safeguard. there are two distinct economies on the island of ireland and that will remain the case. today s agreement puts beyond all doubt that northern ireland s place in the internal markets and united kingdom is fully restored. mr speaker, i want to conclude by directly addressing the question of the northern island critical bill. protocol bill. the bill was only ever meant to be a last resort, meant for a world where we could not get negotiations done. as the government set at the time of introduction, our clear preference remains and negotiated solution. now that we have persuaded the eu to fundamentally rewrite the treaty text of the protocol, we have a new and better option was to the windsor