Outrage at US threat to PM’s Brexit solution
A TOP US politician faced a furious backlash after threatening to block a trade deal with the UK over Brexit rule changes.
Nancy Pelosi said Congress would not back the deal if Boris Johnson tore up part of the Northern Ireland Protocol pact with the EU. The House of Representatives speaker urged the UK and the EU to continue talks on the deal to maintain peace.
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Britain drew up plans to change the Protocol after tensions flared in the province over the way customs rules are imposed.
But Ms Pelosi said: “The Good Friday Accords are the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland and a beacon of hope for the entire world.
“Ensuring there remains no physical border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland is absolutely necessary for upholding this landmark agreement, which has transformed Northern Ireland.”
She added: “It is deeply concerning that the United Kingdom is now seeking to unilaterally discard the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“If the United Kingdom chooses to undermine the Good Friday Accords, the Congress cannot and will not support a bilateral free trade agreement with the United Kingdom.”
Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns said: “As Nancy Pelosi knows, we seek an ambitious free trade agreement with the US. But there can be no connection between that and doing the right thing for Northern Ireland. None.”
Veteran Tory Sir John Redwood said: “Nancy Pelosi should talk to unionists in Northern Ireland about the damage the EU is doing to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“It is the EU, not the UK, that has undermined it and led to the breakdown of the [Northern Ireland] Assembly.”
The DUP is refusing to sit in the Stormont parliament until reforms are made to end the Protocol problems.
Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: “Speaker Pelosi’s problem is the Protocol doesn’t enjoy bipartisan or cross-community support. Under the Good Friday Agreement, that is the only basis for power-sharing in Northern Ireland. The protocol undermines the Agreement.”
NANCY Pelosi, one of the most powerful politicians in the United States, should refrain from intervening in the sovereign affairs of an ally when she has scant understanding of a complex situation.
The US Speaker claimed Britain is “seeking to unilaterally discard the Northern Ireland Protocol” and warned that if it undermines the Good Friday Agreement which underpins the peace process then “Congress cannot and will not support a bilateral free trade agreement”.
Boris Johnson does not want to scrap the protocol but seeks to reform it in a bid to reduce community tensions, restore democracy and avoid further damage to the economy. The central idea in the Good Friday Agreement is that the status of Northern Ireland would not change without the consent of its population.
But the protocol – designed to avoid the need for a land border in Ireland – has disrupted trade with the rest of the UK and the unionist DUP is refusing to share power with Sinn Fein until problems are resolved.
Self-serving interventions by the likes of the US Speaker risk making a difficult situation far worse.