UK minister says Northern Ireland protocol threatens Good Friday agreement

Conor Burns, seen here surrounded by anti-Brexit protesters in Westminster, is calling for different customs regimes for goods destined for different sides of the Irish border. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

The UK’s special envoy for the Northern Ireland protocol has said he told US officials that it has become a threat to the Good Friday agreement.

Conor Burns, the Northern Ireland minister assigned to make the UK’s case in Washington, shrugged off a threat earlier this month by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to block a US-UK free trade deal if the UK took unilateral action to override the protocol.