NIO minister: I was betrayed over Brexit and don’t want that to happen again

Steve Baker, who apologised to Dublin for not paying enough respect to its interests after the UK quit the EU, has now urged the Foreign Office to pay close attention to the DUP stance against the Irish Sea border.

Mr Baker, a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office and a noted Brexiteer MP, spoke to the News Letter earlier this week.

His interview, published inside today in the print edition and in the link below online, makes all the more striking reading in light of the turmoil which has engulfed his boss, the prime minister Liz Truss.

Mr Baker insists that he was right to issue his apology to Ireland, made on stage at the recent Tory conference, but says the media missed the other part of his comments, about London’s resolve to overhaul the protocol.

He says that as a minister under Theresa May’s government he was “betrayed” by UK officials in his bid for a full Brexit split from Europe.

Citing Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s recent speech to the DUP conference in Belfast, and its call for an end to EU law dominance over NI, Mr Baker says: “It needs to be heard in the Foreign Office by officials who might otherwise do a tech mini technical negotiation.”

Mr Baker emphasises that the unionist grievance is the “constitutional question”. He says that respecting the “Belfast/ Good Friday Agreement East-West does mean in my view, ending the supremacy of European law [in NI]”.

Asked if Ms Truss is so weakened since her disastrous mini budget last month that she will lack the clout to challenge the Irish Sea border, Mr Baker says that “she’s got so much resilience”.

• Full interview: Yes, I said sorry to Dublin but media missed my point about our resolve

• Ben Lowry: Up the Ra chanting shows why unionists should avoid New Ireland

• Ben Lowry: Sleepy Creeslough familiar to many people from NI