Northern Ireland trade must return back towards the UK, says former minister

Speaking at the Conservative Party conference, he told the News Letter: “We’re obviously beginning a new phase on the protocol under the new government and I think it’s really important to take the right approach from the start.

“If I’ve learned anything from all my years negotiating with the EU you’ve got to be 100% clear about what you want, clear about your objectives, not ambivalent, and maybe I’m misunderstanding but I’m not sure I quite understand all the signals the government is giving at the moment.

“Of course a negotiated settlement would be good but it must also be committed to the bill and it must also be clear that there can only be one outcome of this which is a shift of trade back towards the United Kingdom for Northern Ireland, that is an absolute bottom line.”

Lord Frost, who was one of the key people negotiating the terms of the UK’s departure from the European Union, and later one of the most influential voices calling for reform of the Northern Ireland Protocol, was speaking to this newspaper after he appeared at a conference discussion hosted by the Heritage foundation.

There he gave Tory delegates a similar message about the need to hold firm over reforms to the protocol.