Boris Johnson warns he could override Brexit deal on Northern Ireland

Belfast Harbour (PA)

Boris Johnson has warned he is ready to override elements of the Brexit divorce settlement relating to Northern Ireland to prevent a trade barrier developing in the Irish Sea.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic is due to travel to the UK for talks on next week amid a deepening row between London and Brussels.

It comes amid growing concern that measures in the Withdrawal Agreement intended to keep open the land border with Ireland are disrupting trade between the North and the rest of the UK.

A fraught situation was further exacerbated last week when the commission briefly used Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol to close the border to exports of the coronavirus vaccine from the Republic.

In the House of Commons, Mr Johnson suggested that he could respond in kind if there was no resolution to the issue of goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

“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,” he told MPs.

Mr Sefcovic and British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove later held a half-hour virtual meeting with Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill to discuss the situation.

Afterwards, the commission vice president said that he believed the issues could be raised if all aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol were implemented.

“I really think if all that flexibilities we put on the table and into the protocol would be used to the maximum that all of the issues that we’re discussing today would be really resolved,” he told RTÉ News.

“We should really study how things would look like if the UK would really use and put in practice the flexibilities we agreed upon on December 17.”

'Practical difficulties'

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar said he understood the Northern Ireland Protocol had caused some issues.

Speaking at Government Buildings, he said: “I think everyone appreciates that there have been some real practical difficulties in implementing it,” he said.

“That’s evident from the fact that some supermarkets for example in Northern Ireland have had difficulty with supplies. There are issues that we’re dealing with every day from yields to steel, and through to pets, and all sorts of different issues.

“What the Irish Government wants to do is to work with the British Government to work with the European Commission and work with Northern Ireland executive, if they can come together on this to iron out and sort out some of those problems.”

He said Ireland had never wanted any trade borders but that they were a direct consequence of the UK’s decision not to stay in the customs union or the single market.

“Checks have to happen somewhere, either on the land border between north and south or in the ports in Northern Ireland and the decision was taken to do those checks at the ports in Northern Ireland, which is much more practical, much easier for lots of different reasons.

He added the only way to change that would be a cross community vote but the majority does not exist to do so.

He said he did not believe that Article 16 of the protocol would be invoked.

“What the European Commission did the other day was wrong, it shouldn’t have happened, and was reversed very quickly, ” Mr Varadkar said.

“It would be equally wrong for the UK Government to do the same.

“I don’t see Article 16 being invoked either in Brussels or in London.”

Mr Varadkar added: “We’ll do our best to iron out the difficulties that have arisen as a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol, and would also hope that people will work with industry in Northern Ireland to take advantage of the current situation.

“Bear in mind somebody can produce goods in Northern Ireland, and they have full unfettered access to both the British market and the single market and that’s actually one of the bonuses for Northern Ireland though I think people, perhaps are not exploiting to the extent they could.”