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

A port worker checks the paperwork of a Scotland-bound truck in Larne, Northern Ireland. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

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”.