Boris Johnson NI intervention not entirely unhelpful, says Mordaunt

• Boris Johnson’s intervention on NI’s post-Brexit trading arrangements is not harmful.
• As it helped convince the EU to engage in negotiations.
• And must benefit every community in Northern Ireland.

Boris Johnson‘s intervention on Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements is not “completely harmful,” according to House leader Penny Mordaunt.

He has pleaded with Rishi Sunak to keep the legislation alive that would grant the government the authority to revoke several provisions of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The bill, according to Ms. Mordaunt, helped convince the EU to engage in negotiations.

Any agreement, she added, must benefit every community in Northern Ireland.

By performing checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in place of the Irish land border, the agreement, which went into effect in 2021, seeks to secure unrestricted cargo transit across the island nation.

Unionist parties, who favor having Northern Ireland as a part of the UK, are opposed to the convention and contend that establishing an actual border across the Irish Sea will jeopardies Northern Ireland’s status as a member of the UK.

The UK and the EU have been in negotiations to attempt to overcome problems with the protocol for more than a year, but insiders say an agreement might be signed early next week.

According to a source close to Mr. Johnson, dropping the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which many Conservatives consider as a key negotiating tool for the UK to get concessions from the EU, would be “a big mistake” on Saturday.

Additionally, Ms. Mordaunt claimed that the law had facilitated talks with the bloc.

The former prime minister and Brexit supporter getting engaged in the discussions surrounding new arrangements for Northern Ireland has been met with apprehension and a sense of inevitableness; however, Mr. Sunak’s team may not view his intervention in the same way that Ms. Mordaunt does.

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