Boris Johnson news – live: Plans to rip up parts of NI protocol ‘economic vandalism’, says Irish PM
The British government’s bid to scrap parts of the post-Brexit trade deal on Northern Ireland amounts to “economic vandalism”, Irish prime minister Micheál Martin said.
Mr Martin said on Sunday that a new British law to change part of the Brexit deal was “unilateralism of the worst kind” and urged the Boris Johnson government to resume talks.
London has proposed scrapping some checks on goods from the rest of the UK arriving in Northern Ireland and challenged the role of the European Court of Justice to decide on parts of the post-Brexit deal.
“We accept fully that there are legitimate issues around the operation of the protocol and we believe that with serious sustained negotiations between the EU and the UK government those issues could be resolved,” he said.
He argued that the legislation would damage the province’s economy by introducing a dual regulatory regime that could increase costs to business. “If this bill is enacted, I think we’re in a very serious situation,” he said.
“What now needs to happen is really substantive negotiations between the British government and the EU.”
