Northern Ireland’s peace deal, know as the Good Friday Agreement, could be at risk if the UK goes ahead with plans to change parts of the Brexit deal agreed with the EU.
Special trade arrangements – known as the Northern Ireland Protocol – were put in place after the UK left the EU.
These allow for reduced checks on the movement of goods between the UK mainland and Northern Ireland. These can then pass freely between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. However, the amount of paperwork required has increased which in turn sees a rise in the cost of goods.
The Democratic Unionist Party, the DUP, are insisting on changes to the post-Brexit protocol before they will take their seats in Northern Ireland’s parliament at Stormont.
Sein Fenn, who won this month’s elections for the first time, are willing to work with the current Brexit deal.
But in Northern Ireland, a unique system of power sharing is in place which means that the major parties have to agree to take their seats in parliament. If one side, in this case the DUP have refused to return to Stormont which means Sein Fenn cannot take their place as the majority party.
Today in Westminster, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Parliament that the government wants to make changes to the Brexit deal signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and she stressed that such changes would not break international law.
