The European Union today said it would take legal action against the UK in retaliation for Boris Johnson’s plan to unilaterally scrap parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The EU vice-president in charge of relations with the UK said the government’s plans were illegal and damaging, but claimed that the EU was prepared to radically simplify customs bureaucracy on the Irish Sea border.

Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns is in Washington where politicians have criticised the UK government’s handling of the protocol issue.

Some in the US have gone as far as to suggest the government is putting the Northern Ireland peace process at risk.

There remains deep problems within NI communities, but no risk to peace – NI minister on Protocol