Liz Truss to hold talks with DUP and Sinn Fein on NI Protocol

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Foreign Secretary Liz Truss

By Q Radio News/PA

The Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is set to meet with the DUP and Sinn Fein for crunch talks on the Northern Ireland protocol.

Ms Truss has warned she is prepared to unilaterally override parts of the post-Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland if the negotiations she is newly leading fail.

She has also warned she will not accept a deal which means goods from Britain being checked as they enter Northern Ireland.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has welcomed her pledge, stating that the meeting will determine his next steps having already warned his party will quit Stormont if there is no change to the Protocol.

Talks have been ongoing between the UK and EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is fiercely opposed by unionists, for some time.

They regard the slew of checks at Northern Ireland’s ports while the region effectively remains within the EU single market, to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, as instead constituting a border in the Irish Sea.

Ms Truss said she will suggest “constructive proposals” to her EU counterpart, Maros Sefcovic, during talks on Thursday.

But she said she is “willing” to invoke Article 16, which would suspend parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, if a deal cannot be struck.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood condemned threats to invoke Article 16 as being “as tired as the DUP and Sinn Fein threats to collapse Stormont”.

“It solves nothing, it helps nobody, it will only make things worse,” he said.

Ahead of his meeting with Ms Truss, Sir Jeffrey said:

“She is right that unionists do not consent to the protocol and we need the Government to follow through on their commitment to safeguard the Union and protect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK Internal Market,” he tweeted.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie also welcomed Ms Truss’s latest comments as a “way forward in dealing with trade issues with the EU”.

“It is perfectly reasonable that goods from Great Britain which are destined to stay in Northern Ireland should not be subject to checks, and those goods destined for the EU market can be checked at our ports. We have already recommended legislation to make this workable as far back as 2019,” he said.

“It would go a long way to easing a difficult situation and should form the basis for constructive talks with Maros Sefcovic this coming week.

“Multiple engagements with businesses and business representative bodies see this as a pragmatic and sensible solution. Common sense is needed to de-escalate this issue.”

However, he was critical of Sir Jeffrey’s threats to withdraw his ministers from the Executive.

“Further engagement and negotiations are the way forward. We do not need threats to pull down the Stormont institutions in the middle of a pandemic, but instead we need sensible, clear thinking,” he said.

“Constructive engagement will always work better than megaphone diplomacy.”

Liz Truss is now the UK's lead negotiator on Brexit 

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