UK plan to rip up Northern Ireland Protocol ‘politically driven’, says EU chief

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic (Rob Pinney/PA)

Boris Johnson’s plans to unilaterally scrap parts of Northern Ireland’s Brexit deal are “politically driven” and “very damaging” to EU-UK relations, the European Commission vice-president has said.

Maros Sefcovic said the European Union was not “here for political point scoring” after the bloc launched fresh legal action against the UK in retaliation over the Prime Minister’s just laid Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which will effectively rip up key parts of the deal signed by Mr Johnson and the EU in 2019.