Boris Johnson’s Brexit chief to lay down ultimatum to Brussels over Northern Ireland

London’s ‘new approach’ sets the scene for an autumn bust-up over the protocol, says Andrew Woodcock

Brexit minister David Frost has warned the EU that the UK will take a new ‘approach’ to Northern Ireland (PA)

Rows over the Northern Irish border will be catapulted back to the top of the political agenda on Wednesday, having largely disappeared from the headlines since the EU’s agreement last month to be flexible in a set of disputes with London.

Wednesday is the day when Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister – and former chief negotiator – David Frost is due to unveil the UK government’s “new approach” to the Northern Ireland Protocol which the prime minister signed as part of his EU withdrawal deal.

Lord Frost is not expected to collapse ongoing talks with Brussels by declaring the protocol dead or invoking the notorious Article 16, which allows either side to suspend elements of the deal at the risk of triggering retaliatory tariffs from the other.