Liz Truss won’t compromise on Northern Ireland protocol, says Brussels

Boris Johnson will announce next week that the UK will move to legislate for overriding significant parts of the Brexit deal.

Liz Truss told Maros Sefcovic that Britain had no choice but to unilaterally revoke parts of the protocol after Brussels in effect ruled out concessions. Picture: AFP

The EU has accused UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss of failing to engage in negotiations over the future of the Northern Ireland Brexit deal.

Ms Truss told EU negotiator Maros Sefcovic that Britain had no choice but to unilaterally revoke parts of the protocol after Brussels in effect ruled out concessions.

Mr Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission, said later that Ms Truss had failed to meet the EU halfway and had “not taken the opportunity to explore fully the flexibilities the commission has presented”.

He told a meeting of EU and British parliamentarians: “There has been no engagement at all on these issues for the UK. Unilateral action effectively disapplying the protocol is not a solution or a way forward.” In an apparent hint at retaliatory action, he said that implementation of the protocol was a “priority and precondition for a constructive bilateral relationship”.

The Foreign Office said Ms Truss had told Mr Sefcovic that the situation in Northern Ireland had become a “matter of internal peace and security” and the government had no choice but to act.

Her comments pave the way for Boris Johnson to announce next week that the UK will move to legislate for overriding significant parts of the protocol. This is likely to involve a Bill excluding goods destined for Northern Ireland from checks in the Irish Sea.

The legislation will end the European Court of Justice’s role in policing the protocol and allow companies in the province to choose whether to follow UK or EU regulatory standards.

The Foreign Office said Ms Truss accused the EU of causing “unacceptable disruption to trade” and creating a “two-tier system where people in Northern Ireland weren’t being treated the same as everyone else in the UK”.

Sinn Fein secured an unprecedented election win at regional elections last week. Once the political wing of the IRA, Sinn Fein won enough seats in the devolved legislature to nominate its Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill as first minister.

However they’ll be unable to take up office unless the loyalist Democratic Unionist Party agrees to name a deputy. The DUP is refusing to do so, unless the protocol is changed.

Unionists fear the protocol is casting them adrift from the UK, by imposing a de-facto trading border in the Irish Sea.

THE TIMES