Scrapping Northern Ireland protocol ‘is an option’

SCRAPPING the Northern Ireland Protocol “is on the table as one of the options”, a UK Government minister has said, in the wake of Sinn Fein’s success in the Stormont elections.

The votes cast in Northern Ireland “demonstrate a commitment to the Union”, universities minister Michelle Donelan insisted, saying the prospect of a border poll was “a bit speculative”.

Resolving the Northern Ireland Protocol “has to be our absolute priority”, she said.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis will meet the leaders of the five parties which formed the last Stormont Executive in a series of meetings yesterday .

Ms Donelan told Sky News: “We will not have a functioning executive unless we can resolve this problem, but I think what we need to be doing is negotiating, trying to find a tangible solution. I can’t outline the solution at the moment because we are working at pace with the EU to try and negotiate that.”

On the DUP, she said: “Their clear red line that they have been very clear on is that they will not resume their seats unless we resolve the protocol, so that has to be our absolute priority.”

Asked about timing, she said: “I am not going to put an arbitrary figure of a number of days, that would be foolish, I think, on my behalf, but what I will say is that we’re working at pace, we want to get this done as quickly as possible.”