Defiant Truss ...We'll Rip Up Brexit Border Deal

UK has 'no choice but to act' as EU puts Northern Ireland peace process at risk

- Macer Hall

Liz Truss told the EU she may have "no choice” but to tear apart the Brexit deal in a row over border checks.

The Foreign Secretary claimed Brussels was endangering peace in Northern Ireland after a frosty phone call failed to break the negotiations deadlock yesterday. UK diplomatic sources intensified the rhetoric last night by accusing Eurocrats of talking “rubbish”.

Angry exchanges between London and Brussels erupted after Ms Truss's call with her EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic.

UK officials said the European Commission vice-president refused to discuss changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit deal, despite warnings that tensions caused by customs checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea threaten to undermine the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.

One source close to the Foreign Secretary commented: “If the EU really cared about the Good Friday Agreement, they would not be making these ridiculous claims that they are being flexible.

“Their proposals do not cut the mustard, frankly. Liz's position is that the situation is now urgent."

Other Government figures also stepped up with their verdicts in the row.

Boris Johnson said “We've got to fix it" while Brexit Opportunities Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg rounded on Mr Sefcovic.

After the EU negotiator accused the UK of "threats and blackmail”, Mr Rees-Mogg told the Daily Express: “He won't respond to anything will he, so it doesn't make much odds.

“He won't respond to our polite and gentle requests. He won't respond to the realisation that the treaty itself provided for a renegotiation of it.

“So, if he constantly wishes to take no notice of us, then we will have to do things for ourselves. The EU behaves as the EU behaves. I never worry about that really, it's just what it does."