13/06/2022

UK Govt To Produce New Protocol Legislation

The UK Government is set to publish new legislation to give Ministers the power to scrap part of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Protocol is part of the UK government's Brexit deal that keeps Northern Ireland within the EU Single Market. However, this has resulted in checks on goods coming into NI from the rest of the UK.

NI's Unionist politicians, despite backing the Brexit deal, have opposed the Protocol as it creates a barrier between NI and Great Britain.

There is some uncertainty over the legality of the new legislation, but NI Secretary Brandon Lewis has said he is "confident the changes would be lawful".

Brandon Lewis has also said that with the publication of the legisation, he "expected" the DUP to for an Executive.

However, DUP MP Sammy Wilson has already said that that would be "impossible" before they had see the the final draft of the legislation.

It is understood that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is expected to speak to European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic ahead of the publication of the legislation.

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