The UK’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK “will not shy away from taking action” if it can agree with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
It comes after Downing Street said Prime Minister Boris Johnson had “made clear” to his Irish counterpart Taoiseach Micheál Martin that the situation in Northern Ireland was “now very serious.”
The region has not had a functioning government since Feb. 3 when unionist former First Minister Paul Givan resigned in protest of the protocol—part of the UK’s Brexit deal that leaves Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market and customs union, effectively creating a sea border for goods and services between the region and the rest of the UK.