Boris Johnson responds to loyalist NI Protocol letter - ‘good will and common sense’ will solve issues

Boris Johnson made the comments after being asked what he made of the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) umbrella group saying it had written to the Prime Minister to tell him the main loyalist paramilitary groups were withdrawing support for the Good Friday/Belfast agreement amid mounting concerns about the arrangements governing Irish Sea trade post-Brexit.

Speaking to broadcasters at Teesport, Middlesbrough, Mr Johnson said: “I haven’t seen which groups you’re talking about.

“But what I can say is we are taking some temporary and technical measures to ensure that there are no barriers in the Irish Sea, to make sure things flow freely between GB and NI and that’s what you would expect.

“Obviously these are matters for continuing intensive discussions with our friends.

“I’m sure with a bit of good will and common sense all these technical problems are eminently solvable.”

The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) umbrella group wrote to Mr Johnson telling him the main loyalist paramilitary groups were withdrawing support for the Good Friday/Belfast agreement.

The paramilitaries said they were temporarily withdrawing their backing of the Belfast/Good Friday accord amid mounting concerns about the arrangements governing Irish Sea trade post-Brexit.

The LCC leadership stressed that unionist opposition to the protocol should remain “peaceful and democratic”.

However, the letter warned that the protocol undermines the “basis on which the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) agreed their 1994 ceasefire and subsequent support for the Belfast Agreement”.