Boris Johnson: Brexit trade deal change must result in Northern Ireland government

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is heading to Northern Ireland on Monday to try to end a political deadlock that is preventing the formation of a regional administration.

The trip comes amid threats by Johnson’s government to break the Brexit agreement with the European Union that it blames for the crisis.

Voters in Northern Ireland elected a new Assembly this month, in an election that saw Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein win the most seats. It was the first time a party that seeks union with the Republic of Ireland has won an election in the bastion of Protestant unionist power.

The Democratic Unionist party came second and is refusing to form a government, or even allow the assembly to sit, until Johnson’s government scraps post-Brexit checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Under power-sharing rules set up as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, a government cannot be formed without the cooperation of both nationalist and unionist parties.

Johnson will urge political leaders in Belfast to get back to work and deal with “bread and butter” issues such as the soaring cost of living, his office said on Sunday. It said he will also accuse the EU of refusing to give ground over post-Brexit border checks and warn that Britain will have a “necessity to act” unless the bloc changes its position.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a border with the EU. When Britain left the bloc in 2020, a deal was agreed to keep the Irish land border free of customs posts and other checks, because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. Instead, there are checks on some goods, such as meat and eggs, entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.