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Ursula von der Leyen is refusing Boris Johnson’s plea for the EU to renegotiate the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland when he rang her urging her to reconsider.
The EU Commission president tweeted: “Boris Johnson called to present the UK Command paper on the Irish/Northern Irish Protocol. The EU will continue to be creative and flexible within the Protocol framework. But we will not renegotiate.”
Following their conversation, a No 10 spokesperson said the PM explained to Ms Von der Leyen that the Protocol was “operationally unsustainable” and insisted she engage with solutions put forward by the UK.
Asked about her refusal to comply, the spokesman said only that the government continued to want to be “constructive and collaborative” in a bid to mend the issues.
It comes after business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng conceded earlier to Sky News that “nobody had any idea the actual effects of [the Protocol] until we left the EU”.
Meanwhile, a Labour MP has been ejected from the Commons after she refused to withdrawn her claim that Mr Johnson had “lied to the House and the country over and over again”.
