French president Emmanuel Macron has said that Boris Johnson was “well aware” of the controls he signed up to in his Northern Ireland Protocol and must now implement them “seriously, calmly and professionally”.
Mr Macron took a swipe at the prime minister as the G7 summit came to a conclusion in Cornwall, saying that it was not for the EU to sort out the “incoherences” of the Brexit deal which Mr Johnson demanded.
And he said that respect for the UK’s sovereignty, including Northern Ireland’s position as an integral part of the country, cannot come at the cost of a lack of respect for the EU’s single market.
Mr Macron was part of a united front at Carbis Bay against Mr Johnson’s demand for concessions on the deal he signed in 2019, under which exports of chilled meats – including sausages – from the British mainland to Northern Ireland are to be banned from the end of June.
Foreign secretary branded EU leaders approach “offensive” and suggested that Mr Macron was among a series of figures trying to change Northern Ireland’s status against the wishes of its people.
