N Ireland orders halt to border checks in new Brexit glitch
ABC News
Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister has ordered a halt to post-Brexit border checks at ports
LONDON -- Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister on Wednesday ordered a halt to post-Brexit border checks at ports, another complication in a saga that has soured relations between the U.K. and the European Union.
Edwin Poots said he had received legal advice saying he could halt inspections of agri-food products coming from the rest of the U.K. that were imposed as part of Brexit divorce terms. He said he had ordered the checks to stop at midnight — though it was unclear whether civil servants would implement the instruction.
Poots represents the Democratic Unionist Party, which runs Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein. The DUP opposes the post-Brexit agreement known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, and has threatened to quit the Belfast government rather than implement it — a move that would collapse the power-sharing administration.
Other Northern Ireland parties condemned Poots' announcement.