Former Brexit chief Lord Frost: It’s obvious Northern Ireland Protocol cannot survive - it must be renegotiated

He told LBC: “I think it is obvious that the protocol as it currently stands cannot survive.

“It must be renegotiated or the Government must act unilaterally.

“I simply don’t understand why the EU will not renegotiate it and move on to a more collaborative relationship with us as we all want.

“But if the EU won’t, then the Government’s responsibility is to govern this country and it will have to take that into hand.”

Lord Frost blamed the European Union for some of the problems with Brexit since the deal was brokered.

He said: “We had to take the decisions we did back in 2019 because Parliament had removed the option of leaving without a deal.

“The constitution was being shredded, we had to deliver the referendum result, so necessarily the deal in 2019 was imperfect.

“We thought that it would work. We knew we were taking a risk. There was a lot in it we didn’t want but was imposed on us.

“Unfortunately, hasn’t had the careful handling that it should have by the EU – the decision to try and activate Article 16 at the beginning of 2021 was a big problem.

“The decision to impose a vaccine border in January – albeit briefly – was a problem and has destroyed the moral basis of the protocol.”

Lord Frost resigned from Boris Johnson’s cabinet in December over “concerns about the current direction of travel”.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Lord Frost said he hoped the PM would “not be tempted” by “coercive measures” to tackle Covid

Last month it emerged that more than 200 British companies have cut trade ties with Northern Ireland because of the Irish Sea border – on top of the “existential threat to the Union” unionists say the Brexit arrangements have caused.

Secretary of State Brandon Lewis admitted to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster that hundreds of GB firms have stopped supplying Northern Ireland. He also accepted that the protocol in its current form is “not sustainable”.