Latest updates: foreign secretary to make statement to MPs as Dublin says ‘breaking international law not the answer’
Plan to scrap parts of Northern Ireland protocol is only an ‘insurance policy’, says Boris Johnson
Good morning. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, will make a statement to MPs later about government plans for legislation that would allow it to ignore parts of the Northern Ireland protocol – the agreement signed with the EU imposing checks on some goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland, to ensure that Northern Ireland can remain in the EU’s single market and to prevent checks having to be imposed at its border with Ireland.
The proposal is potentially inflammatory – because it would involve the UK unilaterally abandoning a deal it agreed with the EU less than three years ago.
No 10 has not appeared to be as keen as Truss on the option of legislation to undermine the protocol in recent days.
One diplomatic source said one of the prime minister’s top aides had been privately telling people that the government was very committed to negotiations and no decision had been taken on pressing ahead with the legislation.
There is ill-disguised fury in some parts of No 10 that Truss and David Canzini, the deputy chief of staff, are so privately gung-ho about confrontation with the EU. One senior official said: “The object of the exercise with some people seems to be to have a fight. The object of the exercise for the prime minister is to restore democratic processes to Northern Ireland. We want a weapon on the table, we don’t want to use it. It’s like the nuclear deterrent. The PM does not want to use nuclear weapons, whatever the knuckleheads tell him.”