DUP leader says Britain and EU not anywhere close to protocol deal

A poster protesting against the Irish Sea border is seen next to a road approaching Larne, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

The Democratic Unionist party leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, has said the UK and EU are not “anywhere close to a deal” on the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol.

At the same time the deputy head of the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative party has renewed calls for the end of EU law applying in Northern Ireland, saying it was a “bizarre and exceptional” situation with a “colonising” effect.