London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Johnson risks breakup of UK over Northern Ireland protocol, says Varadkar

Johnson risks breakup of UK over Northern Ireland protocol, says Varadkar

Ireland’s deputy PM accuses No 10 of making ‘shocking’ blunders with protocol bill
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, has accused the British government of risking the break-up of the United Kingdom and making “shocking” blunders over Northern Ireland.

Varadkar said Boris Johnson’s administration had been undemocratic and disrespectful and tacitly accused it of being dishonest and dishonourable.

The tánaiste made the sharp attack in a BBC interview on Thursday night, days after the Northern Ireland protocol bill – which could override the Brexit deal – cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons.

“I think that’s a strategic mistake for people who want to maintain the union because if you continue to impose things on Northern Ireland that a clear majority of people don’t want, that means more people will turn away from the union. It’s a peculiar policy coming from a government that purports to want to defend the union,” he said.

Varadkar, who is due to succeed Micheál Martin as taoiseach later this year, said he found it “shocking and hard to accept” that Downing Street sought unilaterally to change the protocol. “What the British government is doing now is very undemocratic and very disrespectful to people in Northern Ireland because it’s taking that power away from the assembly.”

An honourable government would honour a treaty it had agreed and abide by international law, he said. “It is not normal for a democratic government in a respected country to sign a treaty and then try to pass domestic legislation to override it,” he said.

Varadkar rubbished statements from Liz Truss, the UK foreign secretary, who said the EU’s proposed solutions would worsen bureaucratic impediments. “Well, there are some people clearly who are able to say a square is a circle. That’s just not the facts.”

Asked about a statement from Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, that relations with Dublin were “great”, Varadkar replied: “In my political lifetime, I’ve never seen relations this bad.” London did not want to work with Dublin, was picking fights with Brussels, and not being even-handed in Belfast, he said.

Separately, in a letter to the Financial Times, Adrian O’Neill, Ireland’s ambassador to the UK, rebutted an opinion piece by Truss that had defended the protocol legislation. It would destabilise Northern Ireland by creating a legal and political vacuum, he said.

Meanwhile, Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin’s deputy leader and putative first minister of Northern Ireland, on Friday laid a wreath at a cenotaph in Belfast to commemorate British army soldiers – many from Ireland – who died at the battle of the Somme in 1916, an important anniversary for unionists.

Sinn Féin leaders have previously attended first world war commemorations but not in Belfast. O’Neill attended a low-key event before the city’s official commemoration. “As political leaders we have a responsibility to reach beyond our comfort zones and reach out the hand of friendship and to do whatever we can in terms of leadership and healing the wounds of the past,” she said.
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
×