What is the Northern Ireland protocol and why is it back in the news?
The protocol was part of the UK’s 2019 Brexit divorce deal with the European Union. To avoid imposing a trade-and-customs border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland it put one in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which in effect remained part of the EU trading bloc. It requires checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain. Unionists say this undermines Northern Ireland’s position in the UK and could lead to an economic united Ireland. The issue has returned to centre stage because the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) says it will not join a new executive at Stormont unless Boris Johnson’s Tory government alters the protocol.
