London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2025

UK-EU relations deteriorate again after ‘strange’ David Frost remarks

UK-EU relations deteriorate again after ‘strange’ David Frost remarks

Irish foreign minister hits out at Brexit minister over provocative article on Northern Ireland protocol
The EU fears that Boris Johnson wants to “dismantle” the Northern Ireland protocol, the Irish foreign minister has said, as relations between Brussels and London deteriorated again after remarks by the Brexit minister David Frost in the past 24 hours.

Simon Coveney told RTÉ on Sunday that EU leaders feared the worst after what he felt was a provocative article written by Lord Frost and the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, in the Irish Times on Saturday.

“Many in the EU are interpreting the UK’s response as essentially saying: ‘Look, concessions don’t matter. What is required now is to dismantle elements of the protocol piece by piece,’” he said, adding. “That is going to cause huge problems.”

Coveney expressed bafflement over the article, coming just days after a three-month pause was agreed between Brussels and London in the trade dispute over the sale of sausages from Great Britain in Northern Ireland.

In a sign of the continuing fragility of relations between the EU and the UK, Coveney complained that London has barely acknowledged the EU’s flexibility on the protocol including a pledge to remove barriers to the supply of medicines to Northern Ireland. The article states: “New cancer drugs can’t be licensed for Northern Ireland.”

Coveney told RTÉ’s This Week the article was “a very strange way to make friends and build partnerships” coming two days after the EU and the UK agreed to extend the deadline over the sale of sausages and chilled meats.

In the piece, Frost and Lewis say Wednesday’s agreement was “welcome” but that it addressed “only a small part of the underlying problem”, claiming the “process to resolve all these difficulties” was “creating a series of rolling crises as we lurch from one deadline to another”.

Coveney suggested this was another attempt to lay blame at the EU’s door as it was the UK that had requested a three-month delay.

He said: “Making statements like the EU are taking ‘a theological approach frozen in time that doesn’t deal with the reality that exists’, an exact quote from that article, is essentially blaming the EU for not being able to implement the protocol.

“The truth here is the only side that has shown flexibility … has been the EU. The challenge here is that both sides have to take responsibility and ownership.”

Coveney also accused the UK of stoking political sensitivities in Northern Ireland.

“The contribution from the British government isn’t helping that [peace and stability], because every time Lord Frost or the secretary of state for Northern Ireland says the protocol is not sustainable, that reinforces in the minds of many people who are concerned and frustrated by the protocol, that the protocol needs to change.

“Instead what needs to happen here is that the EU and the UK have got to work in partnership,” Coveney said.

The article states that the UK needs “constructive and ambitious discussion with the EU which deal with the actual reality”. It says “opposition is growing” against the protocol in Northern Ireland, which “is not a stable basis for the future”.

The ministers say that “consent is also fraying because there is a sense that the current arrangements could corrode the link between NI and the rest of the UK”, pointing out that in 2018 inward trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland was “five times” greater than imports from the Republic of Ireland.

A UK government spokesperson said: “This is not about concessions. It is about finding sustainable arrangements for Northern Ireland and protecting the Belfast [Good Friday] Agreement in all its dimensions.

“The UK government has provided nearly £500m this year to support businesses moving goods under the protocol and we are committed to working consensually with the EU to resolve the issues which are causing significant disruption on the ground.

“We will consider all options available if solutions cannot be found, because our overriding responsibility is to support peace, prosperity and stability in Northern Ireland.”

In separate remarks in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Frost said it was reasonable to suggest resetting the protocol now that the implications of it on the ground were known, with particular opposition in unionist and loyalist communities.

“It just doesn’t seem unreasonable to us to say: these arrangements aren’t working out quite as we both thought. Look at the effects and the way it’s playing out; we really should take another look at how it’s happening.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
×