DUBLIN: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday faced a snub from one regional leader and criticism from another as he visited Northern Ireland, with tensions growing over its post-Brexit status.

The province’s first minister Arlene Foster confronted Johnson with a call to undo “intolerable” new special trading arrangements in place since January, when the UK left the EU single market and customs union.

Then her deputy Michelle O’Neill, from Irish republican party Sinn Fein, refused to join the welcoming delegation, citing Johnson’s “reckless and partisan” Brexit strategy.

The UK officially left the European Union last year, and as part of the divorce in December agreed to a so-called Northern Ireland protocol imposing unique trading terms on the region.

The arrangements aim to preserve the fragile peace in the territory of around two million people by preventing a hard border with EU member Ireland, a flashpoint in three decades of sectarian conflict which ended in 1998.

The protocol removes the need for customs and regulations checks on the border with Ireland, by shifting checkpoints for goods arriving from mainland Britain — England, Scotland and Wales — to Northern Irish ports.

However, there is rising discontent among unionist pro-British factions in Northern Ireland, who argue it strains ties with the rest of the UK by introducing trade barriers.

In response, Johnson’s government has already been twice accused of attempting to unilaterally override some of the protocol’s key elements.

This has prompted threats of legal action from Brussels — and EU sources said Friday that the European Commission would launch two procedures against Britain for allegedly violating the agreement.

Johnson said during Friday’s visit that he wanted to ensure the protocol “upholds the wishes” of both unionist and pro-Irish republican communities in Northern Ireland.

He added the “lawful” and “technical” changes to it, which include extending grace periods of light-touch regulation on goods arriving from mainland Britain, were to “build up confidence”.

“We think it is right, in view of the impact on the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement and the need to have consent from both communities,” Johnson said.

However Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), reiterated her opposition to the protocol, saying the new arrangements have “created societal division and economic harm”.

“We need a permanent solution so business can plan and the integrity of the United Kingdom internal market can be restored,” she added, after joining Johnson on a tour of a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Enniskillen.

O’Neill said she and Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald had a “long-standing request to meet with the British prime minister” to discuss the situation.

But after the demand for a three-way meeting was denied, O’Neill added she had refused to meet him. “I have no plans to meet with him today,” she said.

Since the protocol came into effect, senior police have warned that a “febrile” atmosphere has begun to brew in Northern Ireland.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2021