Secretary of State Hilary Benn has said he plans to commission a review of the post-Brexit trading arrangements following their endorsement by the Stormont assembly.
On Tuesday, a majority of MLAs backed a motion that keeps the Windsor Framework – formerly the Northern Ireland Protocol – in place for a further four years.
At the end of Tuesday’s six-hour debate on the democratic consent resolution 47 MLAs from Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP, along with People Before Profit’s Gerry Carroll, voted in support of retaining the Irish Sea border, while 36 members from the unionist bloc voted against.
The vote was carried by a simple majority and did not require cross-community support.
Had the motion tabled jointly by Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP received cross-community support, the protocol arrangements would remain in place for a further eight years.
Of the 84 MLAs who voted for the resolution, 30 were nationalist and 18 other, while the 36 who voted against all designate as unionist.
In a written statement to the House of Commons, Mr Benn said it was now his “duty to commission an independent review into the functioning of the (Windsor) Framework.
“The review will report to me with its findings within six months, after which I shall be required to lay a copy of it before parliament and then to respond,” he said.
“The government is, separately, obliged to inform the European Union of the result of the vote and the minister for the Cabinet Office will shortly do so in line with the terms of the Windsor Framework. I shall continue to keep the house updated on these matters.”
