Brexit

The cost of a united Ireland could be up to 25 billion euro in year one, a report from an Irish Government party has said.

Unity could cost 25 billion euro in year one, Fine Gael ‘blueprint’

Economy minister Caoimhe Archibald comments on the draft UK-EU deal on food and agriculture goods at Stormont in Belfast. Picture date: Tuesday November 3, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: David Young/Press Association

Expected UK-EU deal on agri-goods prompts familiar divisions

Daera Minister Andrew Muir

Minister defends leaving chamber during no confidence motion

Unionists became second class citizens under Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal

Letter: Damage from Boris years needs to be corrected

Key part of Windsor Framework ‘undermines sovereignty’ committee hears

During his visit to Belfast, Mr Burnham said he is “here to listen” but added that the “rifts” arising from referendums “take a long time to heal”, referring to Brexit and the Scottish independence referendum.. Photo by Matt Mackey

Irish border poll ‘off the table’, says Andy Burnham

Letter to the editor

Editorial: UK authorities should mirror Dublin’s migrant checks at the border

To see this brilliant campaigner Nigel Farage - who used to play the press so cleverly - whingeing self-pityingly about annoying queries about the source and purpose of his new riches is to see a giant crumble

Ruth Dudley Edwards: Farage has come to believe that everything is about him

Polling seems to suggest that most people think Stormont is doing a bad job, Unionists should say they are not taking part

Letter: Unionism should quit Stormont, return to pre Donaldson u-turn stance

In 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%

Letter: My Brexit vote hasn’t been respected but I’d still vote to leave the EU

The News Letter article on the Saturday before Brexit in which Ben Lowry argued against leaving the EU because of the risk to the UK. Saturday June 18 2016

Ben Lowry: Brexit has merits but has been very bad for NI’s place in UK

Brexit negotiator Lord Frost believes current arrangements for Northern Ireland can’t last. The Irish Sea border is a virus that can eat away indefinitely at our Union with Great Britain

Owen Polley: Landmark Brexit anniversary is reminder that NI was left behind

Leader of the opposition Matthew O'Toole MLA, SDLP, and Leo Varadkar, former taoiseach, during a panel discussion titled 'Britain, Ireland and Global Relations', organised by the SDLP as part of 'The Future of These Islands: Preparing for Change' event at the MAC Theatre in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA Wire)

Reform-led government in UK could be an ‘accelerator’ to Irish unity – Varadkar

The government has sought to counter accusations that it is taking the UK back into the EU

Lord Dodds: My EU bill would oust sea border and deliver Brexit for UK

Former UK health secretary Wes Streeting seems best placed to pick up the pieces

Letter: Here’s how to avoid the break-up of the UK

Kemi Badenoch said the UK should exploit its advantage of being outside the EU. Picture: BBC

Rehashing Brexit ‘shows Labour don’t have a plan’
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said that rehashing the Brexit debate is a sign that the Labour Party “does not have a plan for this country”.
By Georgia Bates, Press Association

Two-thirds of those polled said Brexit had made the break-up of the UK more likely

Brexit a failure for Northern Ireland says big majority in new poll

Sinn Fein MP Pat Cullen, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'Neill, party president Mary Lou McDonald and senator Conor Murphy speak to the media outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. Picture: Pol Allingham/PA Wire

Westminster ‘chaos’ underlines need to ‘break shackles’, says O’Neill

Sir Reg Empey (pictured) and Jim Allister both said that Sir Keir is failing to learn the lessons of the council elections (Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press)

Unionists accuse Starmer of being deaf to the electorate over Brexit

Morning View

Editorial: Brexit has caused little shift on NI border views

A fresh row has erupted within unionism over the wisdom of Brexit and the Irish Sea border arrangements. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

Fresh unionist row over Brexit as Jim Allister claims UUP has 'lost the plot'

New Zealand had a five-option referendum in 1992

Letter: More than one way to hold a referendum

The Northern Ireland Assembly must take “immediate and decisive action” to address a deepening funding crisis facing the community and voluntary sector, a trade union has warned

Assembly must take action to protect community sector, union warns

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves wants the UK to accept most EU single market rules. The slogan ‘Brexit means Brexit’ never amounted to much, but it did imply that there could be no going back

Owen Polley: A UK 'reset' with the EU is unlikely to fix the Irish Sea border

Dr Caoimhe Archibald MLA. 'As economy minister I will continue to promote the north as a great place to do business,' she says. Pic: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Economy minister: Brexit is harmful but I have to make the best of the situation

Houston’s Footwear, a cornerstone of the city’s independent retail scene since 1973, has confirmed it will shut within the next few weeks, citing the ongoing impact of Brexit alongside mounting pressures on the high street. Credit Facebook

Shock and sadness as NI family-run shoe shop to close after 50 years

Jon Burrows (right) meeting Ulster Unionist Party members at the Stormont Hotel in Belfast. Photo: Mark Marlow/PA Wire

Unionist unity: Jon Burrows says UUP will offer voters 'something better'
Jon Burrows says that while he wants to increase the overall number of unionists elected – he aims to grow the Ulster Unionist Party and offer “something different and better” to voters.
David Thompson

Morning View

Editorial: Using hotels for migrants in wrong but closing them is irrelevant

Morning View

Editorial: UK has no alternative but to work with Europe over Trump threats

The population surge in the wake of Brexit became known as ‘the Boriswave’, after UK prime minister Boris Johnson

Letter: The ILRs are coming home to roost now

Almost a decade has passed since the vote to leave the EU, in June 2016

Letter: You can’t oppose sea border and implement EU rule

Morning View

Editorial: The NIO has long seemed almost neutral on Northern Ireland

Mike Nesbitt got it right on big calls like backing Remain during the Brexit referendum, a UUP MLA says. Photo: Steve Parsons/PA Wire

Mike Nesbitt got it right on the big calls like Brexit - Aiken

A vet injects a new Bluetongue vaccine into 'Doreen' in 2008 in Norfolk, the first animal in the UK to receive the vaccine. The chair of Stormont's Agriculture Committe fears EU rules which could block 40% of animal medicines from Northern Ireland will also impact Bluetongue vaccines – despite assurances by government to the contrary.

Agriculture Chair fears Brexit rules will block Bluetongue vaccines

The UUP says its warnings of slower growth and diminished global influence after Brexit "have proven accurate".

Ulster Unionists attempted 'to address strategic missteps' by DUP over Brexit

Strict EU Brexit rules coming into force on 1 January could stop up to 40% of veterinary medicines which come into NI from GB, impacting on livestock and domestic pet health care.

Little-Pengelly presses Starmer on veterinary medicines crisis

Veterinary and agri-food organisations are pressing the government for an urgent meeting about a feared 40% cut in supply of veterinary medicines to NI which will impact pet owners and farmers.

DEFRA pressed for urgent meeting on loss of 40% vet medicines

Stevan Patterson with his 1946 Ferguson TE20 that he hopes to have restored for its 80th birthday next year but the Sea Border is making that very difficult.

Sea Border now obstructing Ferguson tractor restoration

The chancellor Rachel Reeves is likely to claim that but for Brexit UK economic growth would have been so much higher. Photo by Justin Tallis/via Getty Images

Esmond Birnie: Chancellor is wrong to blame Brexit for UK's economic woes

Support for the Windsor Framework is weakening in Northern Ireland, a new poll has suggested

Support for Windsor Framework weakening in NI, poll suggests

Hilary Benn appeared at the NI Affairs Committee

Benn pressed to act amid concerns of a 'potential collapse' in motoring industry

Dr Esmond Birnie of Ulster University was reacting to a major report this week from the House of Lords

Windsor Framework report 'lays bare a baffling maze' that businesses face

In a wide-ranging interview, former Cabinet Minister Dame Theresa Villiers warns UK firms to build resilience — and reflects on lessons from Northern Ireland’s political fault lines

Dame Theresa Villiers...what business leaders must learn from political crises

UUP leader Mike Nesbitt addressing his party's conference in Belfast on Saturday.

Nesbitt warns English nationalism bigger threat to Union than Irish nationalism

Mike Nesbitt says Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has introduced a new dynamic to UK politics. Photo: James Manning/PA Wire

Mike Nesbitt says 'biggest danger' to the UK comes from English nationalism

Morning View

Editorial: Still time for unionists to make case for UK-wide Strasbourg exit

The subject of a border poll has proven controversial

Letter: Our leaders got it wrong

Morning View

Editorial: No sign of enough support in NI to back O’Neill border poll demand

Nigel Farage has said Northern Ireland is not at the forefront of his party's immigration plans. Photo: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Farage's immigration plans would 'create an Irish Sea border for people'

Ben Habib has accused Reform leader Nigel Farage of throwing Northern Ireland under a bus with comments on ECHR withdrawal.

Nigel Farage 'throwing Northern Ireland under a bus' - Ben Habib

Nigel Farage wants the UK to leave the ECHR as part of plans to tackle illegal immigration. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

DUP MP says Nigel Farage's ECHR plans won't create Irish Sea 'people border'

The recent EU-USA trade deal announced by US president Donald Trump is not a brilliant deal from the European point of view

Esmond Birnie: Unequal US-EU trade deal provides UK with a Brexit gain

Morning View

Editorial: Our long article today looks at the enduring Irish Sea border

Some unionists are left cold by marches on the Twelfth. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Owen Polley: Shared pride in Britishness best way to preserve Union

The Trump tariffs will be costly for the EU and the rest of the world and they will also represent economic self-harm from the point of view of the US

Esmond Birnie: Tariffs could give NI an advantage over Republic

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