Nigel Dodds: The EU has shown hostility...will our government now act to protect Northern Ireland?

Mr Dodds also noted that the EU had reserved the right to invoke Article 16 again in the future.

He added: “So they have not reneged from the use of Article 16 they just deferred it and reserved the right to use it in the future at any point.

“There can now be no excuse for the UK Government not to use the very same argument to eradicate the far worse societal difficulties being caused by the daily disruptions caused entirely by the Protocol within the UK internal market.

“The UK government has a solemn duty to protect everyone in Northern Ireland from the economic damage being inflicted on our business and consumers and the growing societal difficulties as referenced the PSNI evidence to the Northern Ireland Select Committee last week.

“The EU has shown it can and will act to defend its internal market using the Protocol to do so. It still remains ready to do what it takes using all instruments at its disposal as it says in its own words. Will our government show the same willingness to stand up for our own internal market?”

However, a senior Conservative MP said there was currently “no appetite in Westminster to ditch the NI Protocol”.

Simon Hoare, who is the chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said: “It would be disastrous to do so.

“The events of Friday illustrated, maybe helpfully, is that we need to have some clarity with regards to what the circumstances are which would allow Article 16 to be triggered.”

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Premier Micheal Martin has said he was given no advance notice of the intention by the EU to trigger Article 16 of the Brexit Protocol.

The Taoiseach said he first heard about the move in a public statement, and quickly started negotiations with president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Mr Martin told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “I had a number of conversations with President von der Leyen and, in the aftermath of those, I also spoke, of course, to the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and we discussed the implications of all of this, and the importance of getting a resolution by the close of that evening, Friday evening, and thankfully the commission did issue a statement pulling back and reversing its decision.”

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster had described the move by the EU as an “act of hostility”.

Mr Martin disagreed with that assessment, and instead described it as a row between the EU and AstraZeneca.

He stressed it took four years to negotiate the protocol to facilitate access for Northern Ireland’s economy to the single market as well as to the UK market and to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The Taoiseach said: “It’s a good thing overall. There are issues there that we have to fine-tune, but essentially I think there are positives there for Northern Ireland in terms of its economic development which we should not underestimate.”