David Lammy reacts to news of UK and EU talks on the Northern Ireland Protocol

David Lammy MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to reports that the UK and the EU will hold technical talks on the Northern Ireland Protocol for the first time since March, said:

“The last thing the UK needs, in the middle of a fiscal crisis the Conservatives have created, is new trade barriers with the EU. 

“For months, Labour has been calling for the government to get round the negotiating table with the EU to fix the bad deal it negotiated.

"There is a window now the government must not squander. With hard work and compromise on all sides, a deal is achievable to end this damaging, self-inflicted stand-off.

“A Labour government would restore trust in our relations with the EU, scrap the treaty-breaking Protocol Bill, and deliver real progress to ease trade – starting with a veterinary agreement to help the flow of goods from east to west.”