Brandon Lewis: Empty shelves in Northern Ireland are due to Covid - not Brexit

He told Sky News: “The unfettered access was always about Northern Ireland businesses into Great Britain – yes there is.

“The flow of food and goods linked to the EU and the Northern Ireland Protocol has been good actually.

“Where we’ve seen some images of empty shelves in Northern Ireland – although let’s be clear we’ve seen them across the UK recently – has been linked to Covid and some of the challenges we’ve had at Dover due to Covid just before Christmas and the flow through the supply line of that rather than through the protocol.

“Supermarkets we’ve been talking to regularly have good flows of supply and that’s important to Northern Ireland, being an integral part of the United Kingdom.”

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