Brexit LIVE: Boris Johnson told to stop making £20billion Brexit bill payments to the EU
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Britain is set to make £20billion worth of divorce payments to the bloc over the next two years under the terms of exit, with more following in subsequent years. But during his visit to the Province last week, Mr Johnson admitted the Northern Ireland Protocol was not working as he expected.
Now, Mark Francois, the chairman of the 60-strong European Research Group of Conservative MPs, said the Prime Minister should stop these payments after the EU enforced regulations for UK exports.
He said: “Since we left the Transition Period the EU’s attitude has been increasing bellicose.
“First they criticised our ‘British’ vaccine and then attacked us for not giving them enough of it; then they triggered Article 16, in some overnight spasm, to create a hard border they had sworn to avoid – and now they are petulantly refusing to ratify a trade deal which it took a year to negotiate.
“As Brits, we traditionally honour our obligations but you have to ask yourself why are we continuing to pay this ‘Danegeld’ to people who only treat us with open contempt in return?”
The Northern Ireland protocol was one of the biggest issues during negotiations between the EU and UK last year.
It was designed to keep trade flowing smoothly on the island and to avoid a hard border and checkpoints.
At the end of January, a row over coronavirus vaccine supplies prompted the EU to use the “nuclear” option of invoking Article 16.
This is part of the Northern Ireland Protocol which governs the island’s trading arrangements with the EU and Great Britain.
Article 16 is intended to be used when the protocol is unexpectedly leading to serious “economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
After it was triggered, Mr Johnson told European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen he had “grave concerns” and spoke to Irish counterpart, Micheál Martin.
The Prime Minister said there was a need for “symmetry and balance” to post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.
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He added unionists as well as nationalists needed to support the Brexit trade deal.
Mr Johnson said: “There has got to be east-west consent to what is going on, as well as north-south.
“We want to make sure that is built into that.”
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