A former Irish leader has been urged to apologise after he said loyalists had “no clue” about the UK-EU Northern Ireland Brexit deal.
Ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed that people in “east Belfast and the ghettos and the areas where you are likely to get trouble” criticised the protocol without knowing how it worked.
Mr Ahern, who led the Republic’s government from 1997 to 2008, was key in the Good Friday Agreement peace process.
Speaking at the Brexit Institute of Dublin City University on Thursday he said some loyalists saw the agreement as the “Dublin government taking over”.
But East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson said the comments were “demeaning and degrading” to his constituents.
Mr Robinson, from the Democratic Unionist Party, opposes the protocol and wants the UK government to suspend it.
The DUP has in turn being accused of whipping up anger against the protocol – which enjoys majority support from the Northern Irish public, according to most polls.
“To associate east Belfast with a ghetto and suggest loyalists are not able to understand the protocol is demeaning and degrading,” the DUP MP said.
“People in my constituency who can’t get their Amazon parcels from another part of the United Kingdom well understand the impact of the protocol.
“Rather than belittling those who oppose the protocol, Bertie Ahern should seek to understand why not a single elected unionist in Northern Ireland supports the protocol.”
UK news in pictures
Show all 50
UK news in pictures
18 November 2021
The scene at a recycling centre in Stert, near Devizes in Wiltshire after a large blaze was brought under control. The fire broke out on Wednesday night the fire service has said and local residents were advised to keep windows and doors shut due to large amounts of smoke
PA
UK news in pictures
17 November 2021
The sun rises over South Shields Lighthouse, on the North East coast of England
PA
UK news in pictures
16 November 2021
ancer Maithili Vijayakumar at the launch of 2021 Diwali celebrations at St Andrew Square in Edinburgh
PA
UK news in pictures
15 November 2021
Forensic officers work outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital, following a car blast, in Liverpool
Reuters
UK news in pictures
14 November 2021
Wreaths by the Cenotaph after the Remembrance Sunday service in Whitehall, London
PA
UK news in pictures
13 November 2021
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is ending his hunger strike in central London after almost three weeks. Ratcliffe has spent 21 days camped outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London without food. He began his demonstration on 24 October after his wife lost her latest appeal in Iran, saying his family was “caught in a dispute between two states”
PA
UK news in pictures
12 November 2021
Peter Green protesting outside the Cop26 gates during the official final day of the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
PA
UK news in pictures
11 November 2021
Seagulls fly around the statue entitled ‘Tommy’, a first World War soldier by artist Ray Lonsdale at dawn in Seaham, Britain
Reuters
UK news in pictures
10 November 2021
Climate activists dressed as characters inspired by the Netflix series “Squid Game” protest as they ask Samsung to go 100% renewable energy, outside the venue for COP26 in Glasgow
Reuters
UK news in pictures
9 November 2021
A deer statue silhouetted at Loch Faskally in Pitlochry, Scotland
Reuters
UK news in pictures
8 November 2021
Sunrise over St Mary’s Lighthouse at Whitley Bay on the North East coast of England
PA
UK news in pictures
7 November 2021
Activists from Friends of the Earth during a demonstration calling for an end to all new oil and gas projects in the North Sea outside the UK Government’s Cop26 hub during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow
PA
UK news in pictures
6 November 2021
Protesters take part in a rally organised by the Cop26 Coalition in Glasgow demanding global climate justice
PA
UK news in pictures
5 November 2021
Final touches are made to a life sized Sir David Attenborough cake surrounded by animals as part of a display created by a group of cake artists during Cake International at NEC Birmingham
PA
UK news in pictures
4 November 2021
A spectacular display of the Northern Lights seen over Derwentwater, near Keswick in the Lake District
PA
UK news in pictures
3 November 2021
Police and demonstrators at a Extinction Rebellion protest on Buchanan Street, during the Cop26 summit in Glasgow
PA
UK news in pictures
2 November 2021
A person walks along the Basingstoke canal near to Dogmersfield in Hampshire
PA
UK news in pictures
1 November 2021
Sir David Attenborough delivers a speech during Cop26 in Glasgow
Reuters
UK news in pictures
31 October 2021
Extinction Rebellion activists protest in Edinburgh as the Cop26 conference begins in Glasgow
Getty
UK news in pictures
30 October 2021
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon with Mapuche leader and Minga Indigena Lead Coordinator Claflin Lafkenche (right) alongside indigenous delegates at a ceremonial gathering at the Tramway in Glasgow in a symbolic gesture to mark a unified demand for climate justice
PA
UK news in pictures
29 October 2021
Ocean Rebellion put on a display of puking oil heads ahead of climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow
EPA
UK news in pictures
28 October 2021
A man dressed as Santa Claus outside Selfridges in London as the department store unveils its Christmas windows on Oxford Street
PA
UK news in pictures
27 October 2021
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak during a visit to Fourpure Brewery in Bermondsey, London, after the chancellor announced a cut to beer taxes in his budget
PA
UK news in pictures
26 October 2021
Activist Steve Bray demonstrates with a toilet outside the gates of Downing Street, after MPs voted in Parliament against the Environment Bill, allowing companies to pump raw sewage into UK rivers and seas, in London
Reuters
UK news in pictures
25 October 2021
Second World War veteran James White, 96, at the opening of the Edinburgh Garden of Remembrance, marking the start of the remembrance period
PA
UK news in pictures
24 October 2021
Richard Ratcliffe holds up a photo of his wife Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as he protests outside the Foreign Office while on hunger strike, part of an effort to lobby the UK foreign secretary to bring his wife home from detention in Iran
Getty
UK news in pictures
23 October 2021
Partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stella Morris and Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson attend a protest ahead of the appeal hearing over Assange’s extradition, in London
Reuters
UK news in pictures
22 October 2021
Palace Gardener Justine Howlett adds the finishing touches to pumpkins bearing the face of Henry VIII and his wives, at Hampton Court Palace.
PA
UK news in pictures
21 October 2021
Flooded fields near Lingfield in Surrey, after southern England was hit overnight by heavy rain and strong winds from Storm Aurore moving in from France
PA
UK news in pictures
20 October 2021
A wing surfer enjoys the strong winds as they surf in the sea off of Hayling Island in Hampshire
PA
UK news in pictures
19 October 2021
Actor Jude Law holds hands with Little Amal, a 3.5-metre-tall puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian girl, as it arrives in Folkestone, Kent, as part of the Handspring Puppet Company’s ‘The Walk’
PA
UK news in pictures
18 October 2021
A view over Southend-on-Sea in Essex, which is set to become a city in tribute to Sir David Amess MP, who spent years campaigning for the change
Getty
UK news in pictures
17 October 2021
Members of the Essex Bangladeshi Welfare Association pay their respects by floral tributes laid at the scene where Sir David Amess MP was killed at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea
Reuters
UK news in pictures
16 October 2021
Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer, Priti Patel and Lindsay Hoyle pay respects to Sir David Amess at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea, the site of his death
EPA
UK news in pictures
15 October 2021
A person lays flowers at the scene near the Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after he was stabbed several times at a constituency surgery. A man has been arrested and officers are not looking for anyone else
PA
UK news in pictures
14 October 2021
A red deer stag during rutting season in Bushy Park, Richmond, south west London, which is home to over 300 red and fallow deer
PA
UK news in pictures
13 October 2021
Police officers detain a man as Insulate Britain activists block a roundabout at a junction on the M25 motorway during a protest in Thurrock
Reuters
UK news in pictures
12 October 2021
The aerial climate installation by Swiss artivist Dan Acher ‘We Are Watching’ is unveiled at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh
PA
UK news in pictures
10 October 2021
A young girl is helped by a Border Force officer as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel.
PA
UK news in pictures
9 October 2021
People walk past a life-size sculpture of British singer John Lennon entitled “Imagine”, by sculptor Lawrence Holofcener, displayed to mark what would have been the 81st birthday for the former member of the Beatles in Carnaby Street
Reuters
UK news in pictures
8 October 2021
WW II veteran, 96-year-old Lorna Cockayne, who served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), popularly and officially known as the Wrens, as a Bletchley Park codebreaker, poses for a photograph with the Legion d’honneur after receiving it during a ceremony at the Pear at Parley in Ferndown, Bournemouth
PA
UK news in pictures
7 October 2021
British comedian Jo Brand poses with cut-out silhouettes representing women outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters New Scotland Yard, to highlight violence against women by male police officers or former police officers
AFP via Getty
UK news in pictures
6 October 2021
A protester, wearing a mask of Johnson, holds a sign reading ‘Question it all’ on the final day of the Tory conference
Getty
UK news in pictures
5 October 2021
Members of ‘Insulate Britain’ outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, before a hearing over the injunction banning the environmental activists from blocking the M25
PA
UK news in pictures
4 October 2021
A delegate passes a street cleaner on the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference being held at the Manchester Central convention centre
AFP via Getty
UK news in pictures
3 October 2021
Margaret Thatcher-themed mugs for sale at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester
EPA
UK news in pictures
2 October 2021
A couple make their way through a flooded underpass in Bristol as a yellow weather warning for rain and wind is issued for parts of the UK
Tom Wren/SWNS
UK news in pictures
1 October 2021
A driver talks to members of the media after passing his HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) driving test at National Driving Centre in Croydon, south London
AFP via Getty Images
UK news in pictures
30 September 2021
The centrepiece One Thousand Springs by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is seen ahead of the beginning of the Japan Festival, a celebration of the country’s plants, art and culture running from 2-31 October, at Kew Gardens in London
PA
UK news in pictures
29 September 2021
The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales’ first black headteacher
PA
The protocol was introduced to keep the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland open after Brexit.
Because Britain as a whole is leaving the EU’s single market and customs union, trade checks would have been required over the Irish border if no solution was found.
The protocol effectively keeps NI in the single market and customs union, but as a result this means some extra controls are added to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Though the plan was negotiated by the UK government, the same politicians who came up with it – David Frost and Boris Johnson – are now trying to renegotiate it.
The pair are threatening to trigger Article 16 of the protocol, effectively suspending it, if they do not get their way. The EU has come forward with some proposals to loosen the controls, reducing paperwork and spot checks – though the UK says this is not enough.