Unionist tactics over Brexit protocol could threaten powersharing, warns SDLP

Leader of the SDLP Colum Eastwood said: "We can now work together to resolve some of the difficulty, but let’s all calm down, work together, put the rhetoric at the door because it’s not going to help and it will have a political impact."

Powersharing in Northern Ireland could be threatened if unionists continue to agitate for the “unrealistic” scrapping of new Irish Sea trading arrangements, the SDLP has warned.

Colum Eastwood’s warning came as the Government said it would be open to “modest extensions” of current grace periods that limit the bureaucracy associated with the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.