London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

‘Are France and Corsica different states too?’ UK Foreign Secretary Raab unloads on EU for ‘offensive’ view of Northern Ireland

‘Are France and Corsica different states too?’ UK Foreign Secretary Raab unloads on EU for ‘offensive’ view of Northern Ireland

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has asked for “a bit of respect” for Northern Ireland during tough trade talks. British media claimed earlier that French President Emmanuel Macron hinted that the region was not part of the UK.

The UK media cited government sources saying that Prime Minister Boris Johnson had a bitter exchange with French President Emmanuel Macron over the flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

As they met at the G7 summit in Carbis Bay in Cornwall, Johnson supposedly asked Macron how he would feel if French courts stopped him from moving sausages from Toulouse to Paris. Macron was said to have replied that it was a bad comparison because Paris and Toulouse are both part of France – to which Johnson said that Northern Ireland is part of the UK as well.

When asked if the description of the dialogue in the media was true, Raab told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips that he would not “spill the beans” on the matter. At the same time, he said that “no one should be surprised by these reports.”

“We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it were somehow a different country from the UK,” Raab said, calling such an attitude “offensive” and damaging to the communities in Northern Ireland.

"Could you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, one of the Lander in Germany, northern Italy, Corsica in France as different countries?"


Raab called for “a bit of respect” toward the precarious situation in Northern Ireland since its residents are suffering from uncertainty after Brexit.

The foreign secretary made the same point in an interview with BBC’s Andrew Marr, saying it was “offensive” to try to characterize Northern Ireland as a separate country.

A French diplomatic source told The Guardian that Macron was simply suggesting that Northern Ireland is separated from the rest of the UK by sea.

London agreed that Northern Ireland will observe EU rules on agricultural products in order to avoid the creation of a physical land border between the region and the Republic of Ireland, which could have potentially reignited anti-British strife in the UK-ruled territory.

As the EU prohibits the importation of sausages and other chilled meat from outside of the bloc for health reasons, Brussels can disrupt the flow of goods between the UK and Northern Ireland when the grace period ends on June 30.

European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic warned earlier that the European bloc is ready to impose tariffs and quotas on UK goods, and “suspend cooperation in certain sectors,” if London continues to violate the Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the Brexit deal.

Brussels is particularly angry that the UK has not been fully implementing the required checks on goods coming into Northern Ireland across the Irish Sea.

Speaking to Sky News, Raab called the EU’s treatment of the protocol “very lopsided.”

“One in five of all the EU checks and controls to protect its border… takes place in Northern Ireland. That cannot be right,” he said, calling for a “more proportionate, flexible approach.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×