Theresa May

In 2022, Hilary Benn asked: "The practical question is how would an orange with black spot sold in a supermarket in Armagh actually get to an orange grove in Spain, Italy or Greece?"

Letter: Making a mountain out of a molehill

Morning View

Editorial: Anxious times as Labour government prepares to unveil first budget

Former First Minister Arlene Foster has queried what the government under former PM Boris Johnson did about Theresa May's "mistakes" on the Irish border.

Baroness Foster blames Theresa May for Irish border 'mistake'

Dawn Sturgess died in July 2018 after being poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok.

What is Novichok and how does it affect the body?

The Sinn Fein leader has dodged making the same commitment, and claimed there has been a "general belligerence" towards Irish interests. That's despite hugely controversial compromises to keep an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Ms McDonald and deputy leader Michelle O'Neill, are pictured here in 2019 smashing down a fake border post - a real one never materialised. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Archive/PA

Robinson's DUP won't collapse Stormont - but Sinn Fein are less clear

In his new role as prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer hopes to rebuild relations between the UK and the European Union

Letter: Plan for reset in relations not likely to benefit unionists

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and south Belfast MP Claire Hanna sit on with Labour MPs in Westminster, rather than on the opposition benches with the other Northern Ireland MPs.

SDLP accused of 'somersaulting' across the Commons

Image of the proposed York Street Interchange taken from www.yorkstreetinterchange.com

New delivery unit to look at delayed York Street interchange project

Morning View

Editorial: Delay to Westlink reflects some of the bad planning of NI roads

A map of the York Street interchange from the 2012 launch of the project.

‘Another 11 years’ until York Street interchange in Belfast is built

Letters to editor

Letter: UK allowed Varadkar to succeed on Brexit

Letters to editor

Letter: I hope the TUV have better luck in their pact than the DUP did in theirs

Then-British Prime Minister Theresa May at an EU summit in Brussels, in March 2019. She didn’t explore alternatives for the Irish land border. The same failure has proved true of the leaders of the two main NI unionist parties (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

Letter: Theresa May and Boris Johnson put the UK on a path to its disintegration

Former prime minister Boris Johnson, in a tweet today, warned against any return to 'artificial concerns' about the Irish border being used to keep UK aligned with EU rules

Boris Johnson in warning over Brexit freedoms

Letters to editor

Letter: Too much pandering to the Irish government

Under the Windsor deal, signed above in February, in return for some token improvements in the arrangements – which aren’t working well in real life – the UK actively agreed to the EU’s world view for Northern Ireland, one based on alignment and EU law (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

David Frost: Under framework, UK can't stop inevitable divergence between GB-NI
In arguing yesterday that unionism should not fear the impact of the Windsor Framework, Roderick Crawford presents not just a single straw man, but a whole field of scarecrows.
David Frost

Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen unveiling the Windsor Framework earlier this year. Sunak may have been wanting to project an image as a prime minister who gets things done - but since it seems as though the agenda has ben to delay the full impact of what Sunak agreed until it will be someone else’s problem, writes David Hoey

David Hoey: Foolish for DUP to accept any ‘promise’ of legislation on Union

Morning View

Editorial: The main Westminster parties back Israel at this critical time

Graffiti on the wall and entrance gates of Ulster Rugby Stadium in Belfast. Graffiti referencing the Grenfell Tower disaster is being investigated by police after being painted on the Kingspan Stadium. Picture date: Monday January 2, 2023.

Jonny Petrie: Ulster Rugby will review Kingspan deal following Grenfell report

Letters to editor

Letter: Scientists fail to appreciate Windsor Framework’s effects on NI

The Orange Order, at one time, was ‘the cement which held Protestantism, unionism and loyalism together’, writes John Coulter, and its importance as a catalyst for unionist co-operation should not be underestimated

John Coulter: Three key messages the Orange Order should deliver on the Twelfth

Morning View

Editorial: A chaotic and ruthless Boris Johnson ends up isolated in Parliament

What happened to the £1bn the DUP got from Theresa May’s government?

Letter: The DUP and Sinn Fein thrive on obstruction

Boris Johnson who is resigning as an MP after accusing a Commons investigation into whether he misled Parliament over partygate of attempting to "drive me out", the former prime minister said in a statement

Boris Johnson resigns as MP with immediate effect over partygate report

Actor and activist Joanna Lumley, 77, chose a vintage-inspired white hat with a navy ribbon.

Coronation: The hats that stole the show

Guest Speaker Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP pictured speaking at the 2018 DUP annual conference in Belfast. The DUP believed him when he said he would never support a border in the Irish Sea. The DUP's support for the hardest Brexit wasn’t reciprocated by Brexiteer Tories. Picture by Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press

Letter: The chickens have come home to roost for the DUP

Tory ministers will not be happy with the new ‘no plus-one’ rule for King Charles III coronation - Credit: Getty Images

Tory ministers in uproar after major king’s coronation rule change
Ministers who wish to attend King Charles III’s coronation have seen any plans to bring loved ones ripped to shreds.
Ethan Evans

Morning View

Editorial: Corbyn was disastrous leader yet it's dysfunctional to bar him as MP

Letters to editor

Letters: Nothing to prevent UK establishing system of export controls

DUP Chief Whip Sammy Wilson.

Sammy Wilson blames Theresa May for Northern Ireland's post-Brexit complications

The Caroline Bell blog

Windsor Framework being 'grossly misrepresented' by government, claim

Construction has begun on the UK’s first Lego themed holiday village at the Legoland Windsor Resort

Construction begins on UK’s first Lego holiday village

The view over Belfast. The Windsor Framework offers us the chance for Northern Ireland become the most attractive place in these islands for business. NI will be the only place in the world to have privileged access to UK and EU, two of the three most dynamic markets in the world, while having good cultural, language and trade links with the biggest, the US. That will make our place in the UK sustainable

Ruth Dudley Edwards: NI has lots of talent and the protocol deal could unlock it

Former minister Mark Francois is chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) made up of anti-EU Tory MPs

Eurosceptic Tory MPs warn ‘devil lies in detail’ for Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal

Arlene Foster

Protocol: Arlene Foster says it was a mistake to keep DUP out of talks

Lord Frost helped negotiate the Withdrawal Agreement including the Northern Ireland Protocol in 2019, and was later the then prime minister Boris Johnson’s Europe advisor until 2021. Over the course of that year he became increasingly critical of the protocol, and said that it had been negotiated at a time of “extreme weakness” for the UK government.

'Protocol can't survive in current form', says Lord David Frost

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing calls to allow MPs a vote on any final deal and the Times reported that some ministers could resign if his solution risks Northern Ireland’s position in the UK

NI Protocol: Rees-Mogg questions prime minister’s handling of negotiations

However it's presented, the deal will likely be a defeat for Rishi Sunak who will have failed to honour his promise to sort out the sea border, says Owen Polley

Owen Polley: NI Protocol deal is likely to leave unionists disappointed

Not one Supreme Court justice was concerned at the way in which minority safeguards have been discarded for the protocol, or about the way trade between NI and Great Britain has been disastrously impeded, or about the implications for the principle of consent. As John Larkin KC put it, the principle of consent now amounts only to the final transfer of sovereignty

Ben Lowry: Don't expect unionists to cheer anniversary of 1998 Belfast Agreement

Letters to editor

Letters: EU import controls must be replaced

Steve Baker, UK Minister of State for Northern Ireland pictured at the Northern Ireland Buildling Belfast. Photo: Kirth Ferris/Pacemaker Press

Baker offered encouragement, but can we rely on an unstable government?

Letter to the editor

UK prime ministers created crazy situation in which the wrong goods are checked

Liz Truss

'Screeching' Liz Truss U-turn on public sector pay plan

News Letter editorial

Welcome Lords findings on problems with Northern Ireland Protocol

In Belfast in November 2018 Boris Johnson makes a specific pledge to the DUP on an Irish Sea border, which he didn’t keep. Yet unionists have never turned on him. And it isn't sycophancy, as some critics claim - most Ulster unionists lack a natural empathy with Etonians.
Picture by: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press

Ben Lowry: For some reason unionists would not turn against Boris Johnson

Shailesh Vara is the news Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Shailesh Vara appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Former Prime Minister Theresa May

Theresa May: NI Protocol bill not legal and won’t restore Stormont

Letter to the editor

Hard though the idea is to swallow, the EU single market needs protected

Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss speaking to MPs in the House of Commons, London. Picture date: Monday June 27, 2022. PA Photo. The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is the "only solution" to resolve trade difficulties across the Irish Sea without the EU being willing to reopen negotiations, Liz Truss has said. See PA story POLITICS Brexit. Photo credit should read: PA Wire

Boris Johnson’s plan to rip up NI Protocol clears first Commons test

The noun border appears nowhere in the 1998 Belfast Agreement, which left the international frontier between the two states expressly unchanged

EU misuse of Belfast Agreement is biggest threat to NI stability since 1998

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has survived a confidence vote in his leadership

Boris Johnson hails ‘very good result’ as 41% of Tory MPs vote against him

Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Picture: Alberto Pezzali/PA Wire

PM survives vote of confidence but huge rebellion against his leadership

Dublin politicians, particularly Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, courted anti-British feeling among voters rather than urge caution from Brussels

Owen Polley: Many culprits are to blame for the Irish Sea border

Tina McKenzie, Policy Chair of FSB NI

‘Where’s the Northern Ireland economy?’

John Cushnahan gives two distinct occasions when there was an option before the DUP and Sinn Fein to stop Northern Ireland becoming detached from GB, thereby sparing the NI public from ‘the ongoing trading problems’

DUP and Sinn Fein both had options for avoiding our current GB-NI trade problems

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