Johnson says UK will act on N. Ireland rules if EU won't
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday renewed British threats to break a Brexit agreement with the European Union, blaming it for a political crisis that's blocking the formation of a new government in Northern Ireland.
Ahead of a visit to Belfast, Johnson said there would be “a necessity to act” if the EU doesn't agree to overhaul post-Brexit trade rules that he says are destabilizing Northern Ireland's delicate political balance.
Voters in Northern Ireland elected a new Assembly this month, in a vote that saw Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein win the most seats. It was the first time a party that seeks union with the Republic of Ireland has won an election in the bastion of Protestant unionist power.
The Democratic Unionist Party came second and is refusing to form a government, or even allow the assembly to sit, until Johnson’s government scraps post-Brexit checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.
Under power-sharing rules set up as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, a government can’t be formed without the cooperation of both nationalist and unionist parties
Johnson was due to meet party leaders in Belfast, and urged them to get back to work and “focus on everyday issues. Schools. Hospitals. Cost of Living.”
But he also accused the EU of refusing to give ground over post-Brexit border checks.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with the EU. When Britain left the bloc in 2020, a deal was agreed to keep the Irish land border free of customs posts and other checks, because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. Instead, there are checks on some goods, such as meat and eggs, entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the...
