The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has attacked EU leaders for making the âoffensiveâ suggestion that Northern Ireland is not a proper part of the UK, as tensions over post-Brexit trading arrangements escalated at the G7 summit in Cornwall.
Asked about reported comments by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, during talks with Boris Johnson at the summit, he said: âVarious EU figures, here in Carbis Bay, but frankly for months now and years have characterised Northern Ireland as somehow a separate country and that is wrong.â
He said it was âa failure to appreciate what speaking around Northern Ireland in those terms and approaching the issue of the Northern Ireland protocol in those terms does. It causes damage to business from both communities in Northern Ireland. It creates deep consternation and we wouldnât talk about Catalonia or Barcelona, or Corsica in France in those ways.â
A French diplomatic source rejected the idea that Macron had misconstrued the status of Northern Ireland, suggesting he had simply been pointing to the fact that it is divided from Great Britain by the sea. âIâm certain the president knows that Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain,â the source said.
Boris Johnsonâs official spokesperson declined to confirm the details of the conversation between the two men. He said âtheir relationship continues to be constructiveâ and pointed to pictures of the pair enjoying a beer at Saturday nightâs beach barbecue, but added: âThe people of the UK would want us to continually emphasise, that is not the right way to look at the UK.â
The Telegraph had reported that, according to a government source, Johnson asked Macron what he would do if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. Macron was said to have argued that the comparison did not work because Paris and Toulouse were both part of the same country.
In tense discussions over the weekend that appeared to be tipping the EU and the UK towards a trade war, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, insisted the UK had to implement the Brexit deal in full.
âMistrustedâ Johnson feels full force of EU fury as Brexit wrecks G7 summit Read moreThe current dispute centres on the EUâs decision to bar chilled meats from crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain â , which has led to it being nicknamed the âsausage warâ. The tensions, however, have potentially more far-reaching consequences. Johnson threatened on Saturday to suspend the Northern Ireland protocol that was supposed to ease trade over the UKâs only land border with the EU.
âThe ball is in the EUâs court,â Raab told BBC Oneâs The Andrew Marr Show. âWe are willing to be flexible and pragmatic, but they must come back with the reciprocal goodwill to make that happen.
âIt shows there is still a failure to appreciate what that level of misunderstanding â I think thatâs the polite way of putting it â of the situation in Northern Ireland can have.â
Asked what he thought about the view that Northern Ireland had a separate status from the rest of the UK, he said: âI think it is offensive. We wouldnât dream of talking of the northern region of Italy, the German länder or other provinces, especially ones where there are nationalist pressures, we wouldnât dream of talking about those areas in those terms. What we want is a bit of respect from the other side, a bit of flexibility, a bit of goodwill.â