UK minister for EU relations side-steps query about whether NI visit was made partly to please Brussels

Nick Thomas-Symonds, who was at Stormont on Tuesday, did not entirely answer a News Letter question as to motivation behind his visit to inspection posts in Belfast.

At a media questioning, the News Letter noted that he had talked proudly about the positive reception Sir Keir Starmer’s administration had got in the EU, and we put to him that it was unsurprising that they would get a positive reception in the EU if the prime minister was making clear that he was going to lead the sort of government that gives the EU what it wanted. So, we asked, was part of the intention behind his visit to show the EU how good the new government was in being meticulous in enforcing an internal UK border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Mr Thomas-Symonds replied: “Well listen, it is both about good faith implementation and indeed protecting the UK's internal market ... but in terms of the EU I think there are few things actually in terms of positive reception. It is of mutual benefit to what we want to do.

“It is in the UK's national interest, in the UK's security, the UK's safety and the UK's prosperity to have a closer relationship, it is in the EU's interests as well but it is also I think that the EU to be dealing with a good faith partner, that respects the rule of law, respects international law, and also respects and will remain a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, and I think that is a framework for co-operation that is in the mutual interests of both sides.”

We also said to Mr Thomas-Symonds that we noted that he had and the government talked about the Windsor Framework but it did not seem to talk about the previous government’s Safeguarding The Union Deal and its further mitigations on the framework, but his answer did not refer to that point.