Why Liz Truss will be content to let the DUP change ‘the facts on the ground’ over Brexit

The Democratic Unionist Party’s protest against the Northern Ireland protocol gives the EU an issue around how to respond, writes Sean O’Grady

The home of the Northern Ireland assembly in Belfast (PA)

The politics of Northern Ireland’s latest crisis, or latest instalment in a never-ending crisis, are surprisingly straightforward. They are all about the imminent electoral destruction of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Even if they wanted to, which they don’t, they can no longer operate the Northern Ireland protocol, part of the UK-EU withdrawal agreement – at least, not as the EU wishes it, or, more arguably, as was fully understood and intended when the prime minister, Boris Johnson, signed his “oven-ready deal” back in 2019. Against that, it has to be pointed out, some enterprises have been able to make good use of the province’s unique status as being inside both the UK’s and the EU’s single/internal markets.

Overall, though, the protocol is unpopular, if not unworkable, at the local level. For all sorts of reasons, economic and political, it is loathed by many unionists in Northern Ireland, and it is fair to say it has been disruptive to many businesses and consumers. It’s gone toxic. Hence the NI agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, refusing to undertake the checks required by the protocol, which has the status of international law.