Arlene Foster meets Boris Johnson for last time as First Minister

Arlene Foster has said British prime minister Boris Johnson needs to "deal with" the Northern Ireland protocol which she said is causing damage to the North.

Ms Foster met Mr Johnson at Downing Street in London for the last time as First Minister on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters outside No 10, she said Brexit and the protocol should be looked at separately. “I believe in Brexit because I believe that we needed to leave the European Union and all of the stringent rules that were there, to allow us to be more flexible, to allow us to have a place in the world,” she said.

"But if the United Kingdom is to have a new place in the world, Northern Ireland must be part of that and at present, because of the protocol, we're not."

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Ms Foster said Mr Johnson and Brexit negotiator Lord David Frost have been listening but action is needed now, adding: “Every day the protocol remains the way it is, there’s more damage done to Northern Ireland.”

Under the Northern Ireland protocol, all products are normally permitted to be exported from the European Union to Northern Ireland without checks, to avoid a return of checkpoints along the Border with the Republic and to minimise potential disruption of cross-border trade.

Article 16

Included in the protocol is Article 16 which allows the EU or UK to unilaterally suspend aspects of its operations if either side considers that aspect to be causing “economic, societal or environmental difficulties”. In January the EU invoked Article 16 amid a row over vaccine delivery shortfalls.

Ms Foster said it “may well be the case” that Article 16 is invoked again over trade. “We’ve said all along, when the European Commission tried to invoke Article 16 at the end of January, that the Europeans were quite happy to do it in terms of vaccines and making sure that they had enough vaccines.

“This is doing real damage to Northern Ireland in terms of our trade, but also in terms of the union and therefore the prime minister needs to act and I hope that Lord Frost will bring forward proposals very very soon.”

The outgoing DUP leader announced her resignation last month following an internal revolt within her party.

Edwin Poots was narrowly elected to be her successor over Sir Jeffrey Donaldson last week.

Mr Poots is expected to appoint a colleague to serve as first minister to allow him to focus on leading the party. Ms Foster is due to step down as party leader on May 28th.

Ms Foster’s meeting with Mr Johnson came amid speculation as to whether she will remain in post as First Minister to the end of June as planned, or if Mr Poots will push to install a replacement sooner.

Mr Poots has vowed to get rid of the Northern Ireland protocol. – PA