Frost to Biden: ‘Stop lecturing us on North’

DAVID Frost, Britain’s former Brexit chief, last night warned US president Joe Biden not to ‘lecture’ Britain over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

In a speech in Washington DC, Mr Frost said the president should ‘think hard’ before telling the UK how to protect its ‘unity and territorial integrity’.

The White House this week urged Boris Johnson not to walk away from the post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland unilaterally. A spokesman for the Biden administration said: ‘The best path forward is a pragmatic one that requires courage, co-operation and leadership.

‘We urge the parties to continue engaging in dialogue to resolve differences and bring negotiations to a successful conclusion.’

But last night Mr Frost said he gets ‘frustrated’ when other countries ‘lecture’ the UK about the Good Friday Agreement. He told the right-wing American think-tank the Heritage Foundation: ‘I know the [Biden] administration is looking at this very closely.

‘I’m not convinced the niceties are well understood. I get slightly frustrated when we are told by a third party, albeit a very important one in this context, how to manage these issues.

‘It is our country that faced terrorism, faced the Troubles. I am old enough to remember having to check under my car every morning, as a diplomat, before I went to work. Most people were very affected in one way or another by this.

‘So we don’t need lectures from others about the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. We are well aware of this and nobody wants to go back to it.’

He added: ‘In the end it has got to be our judgement about what is needed to preserve that agreement and preserve the unity of the country and the consent of everybody in Northern Ireland for these arrangements.’

His comments come as Sinn Féin’s Stormont leader Michelle O’Neill has urged the DUP to enter a new Executive. The Northern Ireland Assembly is due to have its first sitting today following the historic election result, which saw Sinn Féin become the first nationalist party to top the poll.

Sinn Féin is entitled to nominate the first nationalist First Minister.

However, the DUP said it will not nominate ministers until the British government acts over issues relating to the Northern Ireland Protocol.