DUP MP rebuffs Rishi Sunak’s solution for the Northern Ireland Protocol as top Tory touts yet more negotiations with EU

Mr Shannon said he was “disappointed” by Mr Sunak’s suggested solution – namely, further talks with the EU.

The Strangford MP said that when it comes to negotiations, “that train has left the station”, and cast doubt on Mr Sunak’s claim that he could achieve a breakthrough where countless others have failed.

The Belfast Telegraph gave Mr Sunak a platform to spell out his vision for the Protocol today, in which he claimed: “I am an experienced international negotiator. I will bring the contacts and know-how to I gained from that to the negotiation.”

Saying that he would “push the EU to come to the table once more”, because that would be quicker than waiting for Liz Truss’ NI Protocol Bill to get passed into law.

That bill seeks to grant ministers power to tear up bits of the Protocol – but critics like Lord Empey have said there is no guarantee that power would ever actually be used, and that it could be next year before it becomes law – assuming it survives at all.

Mr Sunak also made similar comments to The Times today, saying: “The Bill that’s in Parliament is one that I support, that will address them, but it will take time.

“So I hope as the new prime minister I can sit down and have a constructive relationship with the Irish, French and European governments to make sure we can try and see if we can find a constructive solution to this problem.”

Mr Shannon voiced incredulity at the idea Mr Sunak could achieve such an aim, “as if he could open the negotiations and start it all again, whenever we all know that Liz Truss and Boris Johnson and Lord Frost and Brandon Lewis and all the rest of them have be trying for ages, and negotiations were getting nowhere”.

He added: “With respect to Rishi Sunak, is he a good negotiator? He probably is.”

But “we’ve moved on, and moved on greatly” from the idea of talks with the EU because the bloc “has refused to come to a workable solution”.

Mr Shannon said he and Ian Paisley had met with Liz Truss last year and quizzed her in detail on the Protocol, finding her grasp of the situation to be “absolutely superb”, adding: “At the end of the day, we’re aiming at something which is achievable, and she’s grasped it. And I’m afraid Rishi hasn’t.”

All this comes after the News Letter reported that Tory ministers Kawsi Kwarteng and Simon Clarke both revealed that they had always found Mr Sunak to be “backward-leaning” on the subject of the NI Protocol Bill.

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