Draft Movement of Goods (Northern Ireland to Great Britain) (Animals, Feed and Food, Plant Health etc.) (Transitory Provision and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2024
375Ayes
9Noes
Carried · majority 366 · Government won266 did not vote
650 Members · Aye 375 · No 9 · DNV 266 · grey dots in centre are abstentions
Analysis
Commons
Commons
Parliament approved temporary biosecurity and food safety regulations governing the movement of non-qualifying goods from Northern Ireland into Great Britain, by 375 votes to 9 on 11 December 2024. The regulations, laid before the House on 28 October 2024, require pre-notification and sanitary and phytosanitary certification for goods entering Great Britain through Northern Ireland that do not genuinely originate in or connect to Northern Ireland. Qualifying Northern Ireland goods retain unfettered access and are exempt from these checks. The regulations matter because they fill a gap in border controls ahead of a longer-term regime that has not yet been implemented. Until a fuller set of controls is in place, the rules ensure that European Union and rest-of-world goods cannot enter Great Britain via Northern Ireland without the same checks applied elsewhere. The instrument is explicitly temporary, running until 1 July 2025, and applies across England, Wales and Scotland. Because no impact assessment was prepared given the short duration, questions were raised in committee about what happens if the transitional period extends beyond that date. The vote divided almost entirely along government-versus-unionist lines. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, and most independents voted in favour. All five Democratic Unionist Party MPs voted against, joined by the single Traditional Unionist Voice MP and one Conservative. The DUP and TUV argued the regulations are a consequence of an Irish Sea border they were promised would never exist, and that shifting sanitary and phytosanitary controls from the land border with the Republic of Ireland to the Irish Sea is constitutionally damaging. Most Conservative MPs, 114 in total, had no vote recorded.
Voting Aye meant
Support implementing biosecurity and food safety checks on non-qualifying goods (i.e. goods not genuinely originating in Northern Ireland) entering Great Britain via Northern Ireland, as part of the Windsor Framework arrangements.
Voting No meant
Oppose the regulations on the grounds that the Irish Sea border arrangements are constitutionally damaging to Northern Ireland's place in the UK and that these checks should never have been necessary in the first place.
Each row is one party. The stacked bar gives the within-party split of Aye / No / Absent; the columns on the right give the raw counts. The whip column shows the published party position — “Free vote” means the whip was formally removed for this division.
Party
Whip
Aye / No / Abs
Aye
No
Abs
Labour Party
Whipped Aye
268
0
93
Conservative and Unionist Party
—
1
1
114
Liberal Democrats
Whipped Aye
53
0
18
Labour and Co-operative Party
Whipped Aye
31
0
11
Independent
—
4
0
10
Scottish National Party
Whipped Aye
7
0
2
Reform UK
—
0
0
7
Sinn Féin
—
0
0
7
Democratic Unionist Party
Whipped No
0
5
0
Green Party of England and Wales
Whipped Aye
3
0
1
Plaid Cymru
Whipped Aye
4
0
0
Social Democratic and Labour Party
—
1
0
1
Your Party
—
1
0
1
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
—
1
0
0
Restore Britain
—
0
1
0
Speaker
—
0
0
1
Traditional Unionist Voice
—
0
1
0
Ulster Unionist Party
—
0
1
0
Source · Hansard · UK Parliament Votes API · whip status from announced positions; “free vote” indicates the whip was formally removed
The regulations are necessary to apply biosecurity controls to EU and rest-of-world goods entering GB through NI, while maintaining unfettered access for qualifying NI goods; they are temporary pending a long-term border control model.Labour · Voted aye · Read full speech (2,245 words) →
While welcoming unfettered access for qualifying goods, the Opposition have significant concerns about impacts on non-qualifying goods and smooth trade; they will abstain and seek monitoring of business impacts.Conservative · Voted no_vote_recorded · Read full speech (461 words) →
The regulations are a consequence of an unjust decision to divide Northern Ireland from the UK; they create disruptive trade barriers and expose NI to EU goods without reciprocal checks, while the principle of checks away from borders could apply to GB-NI trade.DUP · Voted no · Read full speech (1,250 words) →
The regulations formalise a flawed arrangement stemming from the Irish Sea border; they create constitutional damage and economic harm without clarity on enforcement, and the irony is that flexible away-from-border checks for NI-GB trade could equally apply to the land border.DUP · Voted no · Read full speech (654 words) →
The regulations expose a fundamental governmental contradiction: they claim checks away from borders cannot work for GB-NI trade but propose exactly that for NI-GB trade; recovery of sovereignty over NI is needed to enable symmetrical, two-way check arrangements.TUV · Voted no · Read full speech (843 words) →
The regulations lack clarity on how they will be communicated to businesses, what physical infrastructure will be needed, and how costs will be managed; businesses need better support from the trader support service.UUP · Voted no · Read full speech (361 words) →
If the long-term approach extends beyond 1 July 2025, an impact assessment should be prepared for the draft regulations since none was done due to their temporary nature.Labour · Voted no_vote_recorded · Read full speech (78 words) →
Sources
Division dataUK Parliament Votes API
DebateHansard · Commons
Stance analysisAI analysis · Claude 4.x
LicenceOpen Parliament Licence v3.0