Negotiating deadlock a ‘car crash’ says ex-NI secretary

The negotiating deadlock in the talks on Brexit has been branded a “car crash” by a former Northern Ireland secretary in Britain’s upper house.

Labour’s Peter Hain asked why anyone was surprised by Monday’s negotiating “car crash” in Brussels after the Democratic Unionist Party refused to accept proposals on a customs border.

“Unionists were quite legitimately always going to insist that they could not be put in a status distinct from the rest of the UK,” he said.