PM: NI Protocol can work, but in a different way

Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol can be worked in a different way, the prime minister has insisted.

Boris Johnson said there remained a need to convince the EU to agree to changes on how the contentious post-brexit Irish Sea trading arrangements operate.

Commenting during Prime Minister’s Questions at Westminster, he reiterated his threat to suspend elements of the protocol – by triggering the Article 16 mechanism – if an agreed resolution is not arrived at.

Invoking Article 16 would not axe the protocol, but rather instigate another negotiation process over its operation.

Mr Johnson’s remarks in response to a question from DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson come as UK and EU officials continue technical discussions aimed at finding solutions to issues created by the new economic border in the Irish Sea.

Both sides are trying to reach an agreement that would reduce customs paperwork and the numbers of checks required on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and ensure a continued free flow of medicines across the Irish Sea.

While the UK also wants to see the removal of a protocol oversight role for the European Court of Justice, the EU has refused to countenance such a move.

The government has repeatedly warned that it will trigger Article 16 if progress is not made – however there is mounting concern among some unionists in Northern Ireland that Mr Johnson has yet to follow through with that threat.

Unionists and loyalists are vehemently opposed to the protocol, arguing it has altered the constitutional position of Northern Ireland in the UK without their consent.

They claim it has undermined the principle of consent that was the fulcrum of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.