UK insists N Ireland protocol cannot be sustained

The British official who led negotiations over the Brexit Agreement has said he hopes there will be no retaliation from the European Union if the British government unilaterally decides to suspend the part of the agreement covering trade with Northern Ireland, reached less than six months ago.

Under the deal, secured just before Christmas, Northern Ireland has remained in the EU single market for goods, meaning foodstuffs crossing the Irish Sea from the British mainland have to pass through an invisible border and will be subject to customs checks, despite Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom.

The British government has proposed a four-stage introduction for these checks, which are extremely politically contentious in Northern Ireland, but Brexit Minister David Frost, who led the negotiations, told the House of Commons' European scrutiny committee that if common ground could not be found, the UK government may take unilateral action, which resulted in legal action when it was tried before.

Although he stressed that "we are not in the situation" at the moment, Frost told the committee that should it arise, he hoped the "EU would not make that more difficult by reacting to it". He also warned that relations with the EU "will be a bit bumpy for a time".

This approach, coming after his remarks that the protocol was "dead in the water," and that it was hard to see how its current interpretation "can be sustainable for long", is in marked contrast to the tone he adopted when the Brexit deal was reached, with him having been a key player.

"I'm very pleased and proud to have led a great UK team to secure today's excellent deal with the EU," he tweeted on Dec 24. "Both sides worked tirelessly day after day in challenging conditions to get the biggest & broadest trade deal in the world, in record time."

"It also restores Britain's sovereignty in full," he continued. "EU law ceases to apply … there is no alignment with EU rules; and our Parliament sets all laws for our country once again.

"Our future and our prosperity are in our hands. I am confident we will thrive and succeed."

In response to Frost's comments, the Guardian reported that the EU said it was "making progress" in what it called "constructive" talks, adding that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was looking for "solutions, not soundbites".

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin had talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week, which he called "wide-ranging and constructive," whilst also underlining the importance of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to decades of violent civil conflict in Northern Ireland.

Reuters quoted Martin as saying he did not sense any immediate desire from London to rewrite trading agreements, but he also defended the current rules.

"We were very clear and are very clear that this is an international agreement, commitments have been made and it needs to be worked and the processes that are in it need to be worked also," he said.