Irish Sea border returns to Northern Ireland politics

One of Labour’s clearest and most consistent polices is that it will seek a new agreement for agri-food products traded between the UK and EU with the aim to “eliminate most border checks created by the Tory Brexit deal”.

Such a deal could at a stroke sweep away the most obvious physical impacts of the Irish Sea border and end some of the most onerous paperwork.

In simple terms if a deal ends checks on goods moving from Calais to Dover then checks will also end from Cairnryan to Belfast.

Agrifood deals from the EU fall into two broad categories: New Zealand-style or Swiss-style.

A Swiss-style deal is the more dramatic. Since 2009, there have been no regulatory border controls for trade in agrifood products between Switzerland and the EU.

But the Swiss only have this deal because they agreed to follow EU rules almost to the letter, without much say in setting those rules.

Switzerland is obliged to modify its laws in response to changes in EU legislation, what is known as dynamic alignment.

When BBC NI asked Keir Starmer about this last year he said: “I’m not interested in a deal that puts the UK in a position of being a rule taker. Our rules must be made in Westminster, according to the national interest of the UK as a whole.”

Mujtaba Rahman, a managing director at the Eurasia Group consultancy and long-time Brexit watcher, says an agrifood deal will nonetheless be high on the agenda.

“The likely priority of a Starmer government will be renewed foreign and security policy cooperation with the EU, while simultaneously addressing a number of irritants that flow from the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

“A deal to reduce friction on agricultural goods is likely to be one of those priorities.”