Donaldson: EU and the UK are not 'anywhere close to a deal' on Northern Ireland Protocol

Sir Jeffrey was speaking the day after a meeting with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on the post-Brexit trading arrangement, as well as the political logjam at Stormont.

He told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme: “At the moment, while some progress has been made on some technical issues, there are major political issues in those negotiations that have not yet been addressed.

“I don’t think we are anywhere close to a deal.

“That was clear yesterday from James Cleverly’s report to the political parties that we aren’t close to a deal at this stage.

“There is still a lot of ground to be covered before we get to that point.”

More on this story:

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• 2 – TUV asks why Mary Lou McDonald feels entitled to be part of talks about NI when she has 'no mandate' here

• 3 – Unionists should catch up with others and start using human rights language more, MPs are told