Lord Frost accuses EU of ‘not listening’ to his Brexit demands in late-night twitter spat
Ireland’s foreign minister accuses UK of deliberately engineering breakdown in negotiations
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Britain's Brexit chief has accused the EU of not listening to his demands on Northern Ireland in a heated series of late-night posts on Twitter.
Lord Frost's comments came after Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney accused him of laying out red lines he knew the EU could not accept, to deliberately engineer a breakdown in relations.
The UK's Brexit minister said he preferred "not to do negotiations by twitter" but would proceed since Mr Coveney had "begun the process".
The Brexit minister wants to change the part of the deal relating to Northern Ireland but the EU says the UK must stand by what it has signed.
But Lord Frost specifically wants to dump jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over the Northern Ireland deal, which he signed up to during talks but now is having second thoughts about.
Lord Frost claimed the UK's concerns around the court were not new as the UK had raised them in July. But he added: "The problem is that too few people seem to have listened."
Mr Coveney, who leads for Ireland on Brexit, had said the EU was "working seriously to resolve practical issues with implementation of Protocol" but accused the UK government of creating "a new 'red line' barrier to progress, that they know EU can’t move on"
He added: "…are we surprised?" And said the "real question was whether the UK government actually wanted "an agreed way forward or a further breakdown in relations".
The Irish foreign minister's comments echos concerns in Brussels where some officials believe Lord Frost simply want to twitter a meltdown of the Northern Ireland agreement, which the UK has never fully implemented.
The UK minister is due to fly to Lisbon on Tuesday to give a speech where he will repeat his threat to suspend the Brexit deal.
The UK says if the EU does not significantly change the deal then it will trigger Article 16 and suspend it unilaterally. Brussels is expected to issue its formal response to the UK this week.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments