No UK prime minister could allow a situation where businesses from England can’t export freely to Northern Ireland, says Jeremy Hunt

The Tory leadership candidate said the Government’s legal advice on the Bill to allow ministers to overwrite parts of the post-Brexit treaty is that it “doesn’t break the law”.

He told LBC: “The Northern Ireland Protocol has to change and that’s why I supported this Bill.

“I hope that with somebody who wasn’t Boris Johnson in No 10 the mood music of our relations with the EU would change and we could legally negotiate some proper changes to the protocol.

“I think we have to be very clear with the EU that no British prime minister could allow a situation where we don’t have an internal market, where businesses from England can export freely to businesses in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Hunt also said that he would not axe the high speed rail line in England, HS2. He said he would “keep that going”.