Britain must act to unilaterally overrule parts of the Northern Ireland protocol if talks on overhauling post-Brexit trading arrangements are not rapidly completed, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) told Reuters on Thursday.
Jeffrey Donaldson said that the sooner the issues around the protocol are addressed, the sooner a government can be formed in Belfast after elections next week. Northern Ireland's outgoing first minister, a member of the DUP, resigned in protest at the protocol in February.
"We're not talking about tinkering around the edges of the protocol. This is fundamental for us. The protocol needs to be replaced by arrangements that respect Northern Ireland's place within the UK internal market," Donaldson said in an interview.
(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, writing by Padraic Halpin; editing by William James)
