Eustice questions Biden’s grasp of NI Protocol intricacies

Environment Secretary suggests US president may just be following EU and Ireland’s view on deal

JOE BIDEN may not understand the “very complicated” Northern Ireland Protocol and is “wrong” to harbour concerns about its threat to peace, a Cabinet minister has said.

The US president declared this week that he feels “very strongly” about the post-brexit deal, in a pointed warning to Boris Johnson during his first visit to the White House as Prime Minister.

Mr Biden stressed he “would not at all like to see” any change in the “Irish accords” that led to a closed border on the island of Ireland.

George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, hit back yesterday, questioning the President’s grasp of the intricacies of the situation regarding post-brexit trading arrangements over goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Mr Eustice said he was “not sure” that Mr Biden “fully appreciates” the UK’S position as it seeks to renegotiate the arrangement with the EU.

He suggested Mr Biden is “probably at the moment just reading the headlines, reading what the EU is saying, reading what Ireland might be saying, which is that they would like the Northern Ireland Protocol to work in the way the EU envisage”.

The Government “think he [Mr Biden] is wrong”, Mr Eustice continued, adding: “Unless we have a sustainable solution that enables trade to continue between Great Britain and Northern Ireland then we are going to have issues, and that itself would become a challenge to the Belfast Agreement.”

Speaking on Sky News, the Environment Secretary indicated it needed to be explained to Washington that the current rules were “tantamount to saying that potatoes grown in one part of the United States can’t be sold in another part of the United States”.

His remarks came just a day after Mr Johnson insisted he and Mr Biden were “completely at one”, arguing that no interested party wanted to see any interruption or threat to the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking in Washington, the Prime Minister attempted to distance himself from his colleague’s comments and signalled that Mr Biden did understand the issue.

Mr Johnson stressed that the matter had not arisen during bilateral talks with the President on Tuesday, saying: “We had a meeting of over 90 minutes and it wasn’t raised.

“So there is a great deal of understanding on the part of all our friends around the world that the Belfast Good Friday Agreement is crucial to us and to the world and we need to maintain the balance and symmetry of that agreement and that is what we are going to do.”

Simon Hoare, Tory chairman of the Commons Northern Ireland affairs committee, also said: “It’s stretching it a bit to say the President isn’t fully briefed on the nuance.”

He acknowledged there was a “very strong Irish lobby” in the US, but said “given all the resources of the White House”, it was an overreach to suggest Mr Biden did not grasp all the details.

However, other government insiders backed up Mr Eustice’s assertions.

One said: “There isn’t necessarily the in-depth policy understanding in some quarters in the US about where we are with the Protocol, what our position is, what the EU position is.

The source added: “Certainly the Irish have a fearsome lobbying network in the US, which has been very successful for decades. It’s clear the US position mimics the Irish point of view.”