Category Archives: Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland secretary optimistic on resolving Brexit standoff with EU

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Chris Heaton-Harris also repeated that he would call an election on 28 October if power sharing is not restored

The British government has said it is looking to move on from the row with the EU over Northern Ireland and is aiming to “move quickly” to reach a solution on Brexit arrangements.

After a joint meeting with Irish ministers in London, the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, said he optimistic for a settlement after the resumption of talks after an eight-month standoff.

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Liz Truss meets European leaders in Prague as Irish deputy PM says NI protocol ‘a little too strict’ – as it happened

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In his interview with LBC Jake Berry, the Tory chairman, was asked if he was channelling When Harry Met Sally when he described Liz Truss as the “Yes, yes, yes prime minister” in his speech to the conference yesterday. (Robert Hutton is very funny about this, and much else, in his sketch for the Critic.) Berry said he was referring to Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister when he delivered that line.

In the same interview, Berry revealed that his joke-making has not improved since yesterday. Talking about the conference in general, Berry said:

I think colleagues saw yesterday that when the going gets tough, the Truss gets going.

I do think my language was a bit clumsy in that regard and I regret it.

The point I was making ... is that the government needs to go for growth to ensure that it can grow the economy and Britain can get a pay rise. You don’t have to tell me how hard people graft in this economy. I know how hard people work.

We’ve got to wait until those figures are available … You simply cannot make a decision on figures you do not currently have.

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Tory MP Steve Baker apologies to Ireland and EU for behaviour during Brexit

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Northern Ireland minister says he and colleagues had not always respected others’ ‘legitimate interests’

Steve Baker – arch Brexiter and one of the Conservative party’s fiercest campaigners to get the UK out of the EU – has apologised to Ireland and Brussels for the way he and some of his colleagues behaved over the past six years.

Baker told the Tory party conference that he and others in the party had not shown respect to the “legitimate interests” of Ireland or the EU during the campaign to leave the bloc.

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Northern Ireland power sharing slips to 2023 as few relish a winter election

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Delay to protocol resolution likely to pause Stormont elections that were expected this year

The UK has given a six-month deadline for the Northern Ireland protocol row to be resolved, indicating Liz Truss is far more relaxed about the absence of a devolved government in Stormont than previously indicated.

An April 2023 date for the resolution of the Brexit row emerged after a meeting between the prime minister and the US president, Joe Biden, and would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday agreement.

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Liz Truss meeting with Irish PM raises hopes Brexit talks with EU will resume

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British prime minister and Micheál Martin understood to have agreed there is opportunity for reset of relations

Hopes that talks between the UK and the EU will resume over a protracted dispute about the Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland have risen after a 45-minute meeting between Liz Truss and the Irish prime minister in Downing Street on Sunday morning.

The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, was one of five world leaders to have “leaders’ meetings” with the British prime minister before the Queen’s funeral on Monday, in what was seen by some as a mark of the UK’s determination to reset soured relations with its neighbour.

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Liz Truss’s first big diplomatic meeting with Biden postponed

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Meeting rearranged for Wednesday in New York as Bidens travel to UK for Queen’s funeral

Liz Truss’s planned meeting with Joe Biden in Downing Street, which was to be her first major diplomatic event as prime minister, has been rescheduled for Wednesday at the UN.

Officials from both countries said that a meeting in the margins of the UN general assembly would allow “fuller” bilateral discussion and was not the result of friction. But, whenever the two leaders meet, they face disagreements over Northern Ireland.

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Fireball seen over UK confirmed as meteor after day of confusion

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Experts revise initial assumption that sighting was space junk linked to Elon Musk’s satellite programme

A fireball seen over many parts of the northern UK has been confirmed as a meteor after a day of confusion about its identity.

The fireball was visible above northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland as it blazed across the clear night sky just after 10pm on Wednesday night.

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Fireball seen over Scotland and Northern Ireland was ‘space junk’, say astronomers

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UK Meteor Network says object in night sky most likely a deorbiting satellite from Elon Musk’s SpaceX

A fireball seen over Scotland and Northern Ireland is likely to have been space junk from Elon Musk’s satellite programme, according to astronomers examining it.

The UK Meteor Network said the fireball was visible for 20 seconds just after 10pm on Wednesday night. It received almost 800 reports from Scotland, North Ireland and northern England.

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UK to unilaterally continue suspending Northern Ireland border checks

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Move likely further to antagonise EU but leaders hope Queen’s death may help bring about reconciliation

The UK has made a unilateral decision to continue suspending border checks on farm produce and other goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, a move likely to antagonise the EU but not provoke further action.

London notified Brussels of its decision on Thursday in its formal response to seven lawsuits brought by the EU over the alleged failure of the UK to comply with the Northern Ireland protocol.

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King Charles pledges to ‘seek welfare of all’ in Northern Ireland

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New monarch meets politicians and public as he tries to build on late Queen’s efforts at reconciliation

King Charles has resolved to “seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland”, in a formal response to the region’s assembly on his visit to Hillsborough Castle to meet the public and politicians.

After being greeted by crowds chanting “God save the King” at the gates of the royal residence in County Down, he made the pledge in response to a message of condolence from Alex Maskey, the nationalist Speaker of the Northern Ireland assembly and a former IRA internee.

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EU offers to reduce Northern Ireland border checks to ‘a couple of lorries a day’

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Brexit chief extends olive branch in effort to bring UK back to negotiating table in long-running dispute

The EU has initiated a fresh attempt to end the Northern Ireland Brexit dispute with the UK with a proposal to reduce checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to a near “invisible manner” involving just “a couple of lorries” a day.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said physical checks would be made only “when there is a reasonable suspicion of illegal trade smuggling, illegal drugs, dangerous toys or poisoned food”.

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Irish and Northern Irish leaders hail Queen’s contribution to peace

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Loyalists and unionists grieve as politicians remember late monarch’s historic 2011 visit to Ireland

Political leaders across Ireland and Northern Ireland have hailed the Queen’s role in applying balm to centuries of conflict between nationalism and unionism as one of the most consequential uses of her symbolic power.

Grief was most viscerally expressed in loyalist and unionist areas of Northern Ireland, where murals of the late monarch turned into shrines and gathering points for people to share memories.

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White House warns Truss over efforts to ‘undo’ Northern Ireland protocol

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Biden administration says undoing the protocol would not be ‘conducive’ to a trade deal between the UK and US

The Biden administration has sent Liz Truss a message on her second day in office warning against “efforts to undo the Northern Ireland protocol”.

The warning came from the lectern in the White House briefing room, where spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about new British prime minister Truss’s first phone call with Joe Biden and whether a US-UK trade deal was discussed.

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Ukraine war and energy crisis on Truss agenda as British PM speaks to Biden

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The new British prime minister also spoke to Volodymyr Zelenskiy on her first day in office, pledging UK ‘assistance for the long term’

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing global energy crisis have emerged as a leading foreign policy priorities for Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss, as she and her US counterpart Joe Biden promised to strengthen their relationship in face of Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

Truss’s call to Biden on Tuesday night followed a conversation with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and focused on what she called “the extreme economic problems caused by Putin’s war”. Biden and Truss “reinforced their commitment to strengthening global liberty, tackling the risks posed by autocracies and ensuring Putin fails in Ukraine”, according to Downing Street.

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EU and UK could ‘have another go’ at Brexit talks, says NI minister

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Meeting of Conor Burns and Maroš Šefčovič a promising sign as taoiseach says dispute is ‘testing and fraying’ Anglo-Irish relations

Hopes that Brexit talks between the EU and the UK could restart after nine months of paralysis were raised over the weekend after Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns held talks with the European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič.

He spoke as the Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, said the deepening row over the Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland was “testing and fraying” Anglo-Irish relations, but that the arrival of a new prime minister offered a chance for a fresh approach to break the impasse.

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EU warns next PM unilateral action on Brexit deal is of ‘great concern’

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European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, says it is ‘legally and politically inconceivable’

The EU has warned the incoming British prime minister, likely to be Liz Truss, that any unilateral action to scrap part of the Brexit deal is legally and politically of “great concern” across the continent.

The warning by the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, comes just days before the new prime minister is expected to confirm they will press ahead with new laws to dismantle the arrangements for Northern Ireland.

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Visits to shopping centres and high streets dip below pre-pandemic levels

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South of England experiencing faster recovery than north, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Visits to high streets and shopping centres dipped to below pre-pandemic levels last month, with the north of England – plus Scotland and Northern Ireland – trailing behind the south in terms of the overall recovery from Covid-fuelled gloom.

Footfall decreased by 14% in July compared with 2019, reversing gains made in April, as retailers struggled to entice shoppers amid a heatwave in the third week of the month and surging inflation.

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‘His legacy will endure’: tributes paid to David Trimble

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Death of Northern Ireland’s inaugural first minister inspires rare solidarity as role in ending the Troubles is hailed

David Trimble has accomplished in death a feat that eluded him in life: he has united Northern Ireland unionists, with one leader after another lining up to laud him.

The region’s inaugural first minister inspired a rare solidarity across the fractured ranks of unionism on Tuesday when even his bitterest foes paid tribute to his role in ending the Troubles.

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Fears island of Ireland faces ‘new carve-up’ by mining companies

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Campaigners warn of damage as concessions now cover over a quarter of land on both sides of border

Environmentalists on the island of Ireland say they fear a “new carve-up of the island” over coming decades, with mining concessions now covering more than a quarter of all land on both sides of the border.

More than 25% of the total land area of Northern Ireland is covered by mining concessions, according to government statistics, while the figure for the Irish republic has in the past couple of years been even higher at 27%. The prospecting licences covering these areas grant mining companies permission to survey and assess sites, as well as carry out exploratory work that includes digging tunnels, pits, taking rock samples and carrying out chemical analyses.

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EU launches new legal proceedings against UK over Northern Ireland protocol – UK politics live

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European Commission criticises ‘UK’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussion’ with regard to joint solutions

The European Union has launched fresh legal action against the UK for failing to comply with the Northern Ireland protocol.

In a statement, the European Commission says it is launching four new infringement procedures because the UK is ignoring obligations it has to the EU under the protocol, which imposes customs rules for goods going between Britain and Northern Ireland to avoid the need for checks at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

In a spirit of constructive cooperation, the commission refrained from launching certain infringement procedures for over a year to create the space to look for joint solutions with the UK. However, the UK’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussion since last February and the continued passage of the Northern Ireland protocol bill through the UK parliament go directly against this spirit.

The aim of these infringement procedures is to secure compliance with the protocol in a number of key areas. This compliance is essential for Northern Ireland to continue to benefit from its privileged access to the European single market, and is necessary to protect the health, security and safety of EU citizens as well as the integrity of the single market.

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