Boris Johnson renews threat to TEAR UP parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol if the EU refuses to budge on easing post-Brexit trade checks as he warns the current rules and processes must be ‘sandpapered into shape’
- UK and EU remain locked in talks to try to improve the Northern Ireland Protocol
- Boris Johnson repeated threat to tear up parts of Protocol if progress not made
- Prime Minister said if ‘absurd’ checks are not eased UK will ‘take further steps’
Boris Johnson has renewed his threat to tear up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol if the EU refuses to budge on easing post-Brexit trade checks.
The Prime Minister said if Brussels is going to be ‘very, very dogmatic’ on the issue and ‘we can’t make enough progress’ then the UK will ‘take further steps’ on its own.
He said some elements of the protocol, which was agreed to by both sides as part of the Brexit divorce deal, are ‘absurd’ as he argued the processes need to be ‘sandpapered into shape’.
Mr Johnson’s comments came as Britain and the bloc remain locked in talks on how to improve the rollout of the protocol which has caused disruption at ports and inflamed community tensions.
Boris Johnson has renewed his threat to tear up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol if the EU refuses to budge on easing post-Brexit trade checks
Mr Johnson’s comments came as Britain and the bloc remain locked in talks on how to improve the protocol which has caused disruption at ports and inflamed community tensions in Northern Ireland
The protocol was agreed by the EU and UK as part of the Withdrawal Agreement and it is designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.
It achieves that by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU single market for goods, with regulatory checks and inspections now required on agri-food produce moving into the region from the rest of the UK.
The new arrangements have caused some disruption to trade since the start of the year as firms have struggled with new processes and administration.
The checks have also inflamed community tensions as unionists believe the processes create an Irish Sea border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK which threatens the Union.
The protocol has been blamed as a factor behind a recent upsurge in violence in loyalist areas.
Last month the UK Government unilaterally decided to extend post-Brexit grace periods on certain trade checks in Northern Ireland in an attempt to reduce friction.
That prompted the EU to accuse the UK of breaching international law as the bloc launched formal legal action.
The atmosphere surrounding the talks was said to have improved in recent weeks but a breakthrough remains elusive.
In an interview with BBC NI’s Spotlight programme, the Prime Minister repeated a threat to trigger a mechanism to suspend the protocol – Article 16 – if changes to the arrangements cannot be agreed.
‘If we can’t make enough progress and if it looks as though the EU is going to be very, very dogmatic about it and we continue to have absurd situations so you can’t bring in rose bushes with British soil into Northern Ireland, you can’t bring British sausages into Northern Ireland, then frankly I’m going to, we’ll have to take further steps,’ he told the BBC.
‘What we’re doing is removing what I think of as the unnecessary protuberances and barriers that have grown up and we’re getting the barnacles off the thing and sandpapering it into shape.’
Last month the UK Government unilaterally decided to extend post-Brexit grace periods on certain trade checks in Northern Ireland in an attempt to reduce friction. That prompted the EU to accuse the UK of breaching international law as the bloc launched formal legal action
The comments echo those made by the PM in February this year when he told the EU he is willing to override parts of the divorce deal unless the bloc agrees to ease checks.
He said at the time: ‘We will do everything we need to do, whether legislatively or indeed by triggering Article 16 of the protocol, to ensure that there is no barrier down the Irish Sea.’
BBC NI’s Spotlight programme also interviewed Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin on the issue and he said the protocol posed no threat to the integrity of the UK.
‘The Protocol is not tearing the United Kingdom apart, that’s just an overly dramatic presentation of it in our view,’ he said.
‘It explicitly affirms the constitutional position of Northern Ireland and the principle of consent.
‘So it’s not a danger to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland at all, and was never intended to be.’
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