Edwin Poots accused of engaging in ‘abuse of power for political gain’ in ordering halt to post-Brexit checks

The former DUP minister Edwin Poots engaged in “the abuse of power for political gain” when he ordered a halt to post-Brexit checks at Northern Ireland’s ports, according to the union that represents senior civil servants in Northern Ireland.

The general secretary of the FDA, Dave Penman, also said the DUP Assembly member and former minister for agriculture failed in his responsibility to protect the impartiality and integrity of the Civil Service.

Mr Penman was speaking to the Belfast Telegraph following the publication of the full judgment by Mr Justice Colton in a judicial review taken in response to Mr Poots’s order.

In February 2022, Mr Poots told his officials to stop operating the checks – which were the responsibility of his department – stating he had received legal advice that there was no Executive approval for the sanitary and phytosanitary checks and a decision to initiate or continue these checks “could not validly be taken” without it.

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The move was part of the DUP’s wider campaign against the Northern Ireland protocol – the part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement which avoided a hard Border on the island of Ireland by placing a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea – which subsequently led to the party’s refusal to go back into government in Northern Ireland following elections in May.

The North remains without a devolved Assembly or Executive, and the DUP has said it will not re-enter the political institutions until the issues around the protocol are resolved to its satisfaction.

In practice, the checks at the ports continued and officials in the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs sought their own legal advice.

In his ruling in December, the judge quashed Mr Poots’s instruction to halt the checks, saying it was “unlawful and of no effect”.

Mr Justice Colton said it was “difficult to draw any conclusion other than that the decision under challenge in this application was an overtly political one, taken for political reasons and as part of the political campaign directed in opposition to the protocol”.

On Tuesday, Mr Penman said that, “as the judgment makes clear, Edwin Poots acted in complete contravention of his obligations as a minister to uphold the rule of law”.

He said that not only had Mr Poots “ignore[d] his own obligations under the ministerial code … he failed in his responsibility to ensure that civil servants never face the dilemma of whether to act on ministerial instruction or uphold the rule of law.

“The impartiality and integrity of the Civil Service needs to be protected by Ministers, and his failure to do so has also opened up accusations of political bias, which has such serious consequences in the context of the volatile political situation in Northern Ireland.

“This damning judgment on the abuse of power for political gain, at significant taxpayer expense, should serve notice to Ministers in the future that power comes with responsibility, not least to uphold the rule of law – however politically inconvenient that may be,” he said.

The DUP has been approached for comment.