A Trade Deal With Biden Will Show Up EU's Pettiness

The EU is no friend of freedom. Barely a year after Brussels lost the power to dictate the shape of bananas in our supermarkets, it now seeks to stop shoppers in Northern Ireland from buying British bangers.

- Imran Khan

EU vice-president Maros Sefcovic asserts that the Northern Ireland Protocol obliges us to begin imposing restrictions and disruptive checks on sausages and other chilled meats entering Northern Ireland at the end of this month.

His demand that we “respect the rule of law” on the Northern Ireland Protocol misses the point.

The rule of law means being true to your constitution and your laws. It means respecting your courts and their judgments. Above all, it means remembering that, in a democracy like ours, all power comes from the people. This principle is enshrined in the Magna Carta.

Our duty is to follow our constitution, and to listen to, and to act upon, the wishes of our people. And what do those people say?

My constituents in Wakefield think it is bonkers that food produced in the UK cannot be sold in Northern Ireland, which is as much a part of the UK as our town is.

Nor do I think that ordinary people, whether in the UK or the EU, have any time for politicians or bureaucrats unable to show enough flexibility or goodwill to resolve this issue amicably.

Ordinary citizens in the UK and the EU don’t obsess about the Northern Ireland protocol.

They want the politicians and bureaucrats to get off their high horses and cut a deal.