Maroš Šefčovič urges PM to ‘get Brexit done’ and work with the EU

Maroš Šefčovič said the protocol offered Northern Ireland the best of both worlds, or ‘having the jam on both sides of the bread’. Photograph: Stéphanie Lecocq/EPA

A senior EU official has urged Boris Johnson’s government to move on from Brexit and work with the bloc in the face of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.

Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s vice-president who is in charge of UK relations, repeated his criticism of the government’s “illegal” plan to rip up parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, two days after the bill cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons.