Liz Truss 'willing' to override Northern Ireland-part of Brexit deal

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says she will not accept a deal which means goods from Britain being checked as they enter Northern Ireland.

Ms Truss, now the UK's lead negotiator with the EU in post-Brexit talks, was writing in the Sunday Telegraph.

For the last six months the UK has been attempting to renegotiate that deal.

Next week Ms Truss is due to hold two days of talks with her European Union counterpart Maros Sefcovic.

"I will not sign up to anything which sees the people of Northern Ireland unable to benefit from the same decisions on taxation and spending as the rest of the UK, or which still sees goods moving within our own country being subject to checks," she said.

In July, the UK proposed an arrangement in which goods from Great Britain which are due to stay in Northern Ireland would not be checked and would have minimal paperwork.

Goods which are due to move onwards to the Republic of Ireland would be checked at Northern Ireland's ports.

The EU published its own proposals in October which it said would significantly reduce, but not eliminate, checks on goods.

It has previously said that the easiest way to reduce checks would be for the UK to sign up to a Swiss-style agrifood agreement.

That would involve all of the UK following the relevant EU rules, something the government says it could not accept.

Ms Truss says that when she meets Mr Sefcovic, the EU's lead post-Brexit negotiator, she will be "putting forward our constructive proposals to resolve the situation".

It is not yet clear if these differ from the July proposals.

She has also repeated the UK's willingness to use the Article 16 mechanism of the protocol.

Article 16 sets out the process for taking unilateral "safeguard" measures if either the EU or UK concludes that the deal is leading to serious practical problems or causing diversion of trade.

Those safeguards would amount to suspending parts of the deal.

Ms Truss said: "I want a negotiated solution but if we have to use legitimate provisions including Article 16, I am willing to do that.

"This safeguard clause was explicitly designed - and agreed to by all sides - to ease acute problems because of the sensitivity of the issues at play."

The EU has said it does not believe the use of Article 16 is justified and that its deployment could lead to the collapse of the wider Brexit deal, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Next week Ms Truss is also due to meet Northern Ireland's political and business leaders.

He has demanded a deadline be set for an end to the protocol negotiations with Brussels.

Sir Jeffrey has warned the party could quit the Stormont executive if there was no change to the protocol.