Boris Johnson’s government should reciprocate the “generosity of spirit” shown by the European Union over the Northern Ireland Protocol, Ireland’s premier Micheal Martin has said.
In the wake of the bloc’s decision to extend the grace period on the GB-NI trade of chilled meats following weeks of poisonous stalemate, the Irish Taoseaich suggested European leaders have indicated they are willing to deploy a “sense of flexibility”, as he insisted there were “sustainable solutions” to be found within the existing Brexit withdrawal agreement.
However, Lord Frost, the UK’s Brexit minister, appeared to dismiss the recent “sausage wars” truce as a “sticking plaster” which addresses only a “tiny part of the problem” with the trade deal he negotiated last year, suggesting the NI Protocol was failing to “reflect the balance that was in the Good Friday Agreement” and therefore was “not working”.
Elsewhere, despite praising Labour’s candidate Kim Leadbeater, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has suggested that Sir Keir Starmer deserves the credit for the party’s narrow electoral victory in Batley and Spen, which – setting aside the Tories’ two recent victories in Copeland and Hartlepool – saw the largest swing to a governing party in a by-election for 39 years.
