PM says there must be east - west consent for the Protocol

By Michael McHugh, PA

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for “symmetry and balance” to post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland.

Unionists are fiercely opposed to the Northern Ireland Protocol and Mr Johnson was in “listening mode” as he held frank discussions with the DUP during a visit to Belfast and Co Fermanagh on Friday.

Mr Johnson said there had to be east-west as well as north-south consent after red tape on goods moving from Great Britain exposed fresh divisions between unionists and nationalists.

The Prime Minister said the protocol – which kept the Irish land border open but imposed extra paperwork on supplies from the rest of the UK – should guarantee the peace process and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

He said: “There has got to be a balance and symmetry in that.

“We want to ensure that the protocol upholds the wishes of both communities and has the consent of both.

“There has got to be east-west consent to what is going on, as well as north-south.

“We want to make sure that is built into that.”

Loyalists have expressed growing discontent at what they see as measures threatening Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.

The arrangements are designed to keep the region in the EU’s single market for goods to preserve frictionless business on the island.

Loyalist leaders wrote to the Prime Minister recently, withdrawing support for the Good Friday Agreement which largely ended decades of violence.

Consent was enshrined in the peace process.

The British Government has unilaterally extended until October some grace periods of light-touch regulation on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain, which had been due to end at the end of this month.

The EU has threatened legal action in response.

Mr Johnson said: “We are taking some lawful, technical measures to build up confidence in the east-west operation as well.

“We think it is lawful, indeed we think it is right, in view of the impact on the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement and the need to have consent from both communities.”