The BBC reports that the UK government is to set out legislation that will enable ministers to override parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, according to one of its sources.
The Protocol is the mechanism within the Brexit deal that avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland but has angered unionists over the fact that it creates a trade border in the Irish Sea and goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland are subject to checks and paperwork.
Following the recent Northern Ireland assembly election, the Democratic Unionist Party is refusing to enter Stormont as an act of protest, meaning that the devolved government in the country cannot be formed.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said that the Protocol has eroded the foundations that devolution was built upon and pushes Northern Ireland to the periphery of the union.
Prime minister Boris Johnson is to visit Belfast on Monday in order encourage the return of the power-sharing government there.
Johnson has also written in the Belfast Telegraph that the Protocol must be changed and local government restored. He also argues that the Protocol is an outdated mechanism that is not conducive to the needs of the post-Covid era, and does not account for the economic effects of the war in Ukraine and ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
The UK and EU have been locked in talks to try to negotiate making the Protocol work more practically, but Brussels’ proposals for reducing paperwork and checks on goods were dismissed by the UK.
The PM said that the government remained open to dialogue with the EU but insisted that Westminster had to take action if the bloc’s stance remains unaltered.
Now, according to the BBC’s source within government, ministers are preparing legislation that would remove parts of the Protocol to allow trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to resume unhindered.
The EU has threatened trade sanctions if the UK presses ahead with unilateral action, and it is likely to take time for the legislation to pass through Parliament.
The prime minister is expected to set out the government’s next steps on Tuesday following his visit to Northern Ireland, the BBC reports.
Sir Jeffrey has said that he will “judge what the government does” and “look at the credibility” of its proposals before making any commitment to take his party back into the executive.
“The time has come now for action, if the government takes decisive action, then of course we will consider what steps we can take,” Sir Jeffrey said.
Mary Lou McDonald, president of the Irish nationalist Sinn Féin party which secured the most seats in the recent assembly election, said that it was “very foolish” and “reckless” of the UK government to “pursue again the threat of unilateral action”.
McDonald added that the move could put the UK on a “full-on collision” course with the EU, Republic of Ireland and US.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney urged both sides to get back to the negotiating table to find a suitable “middle-ground position that everybody can live with.”
Coveney added: “There are real issues in relation to the implementation of the Protocol that need the attention of both the UK and the EU working together to make sure that we can respond to concerns on the ground.”
