Brexit: UK on trajectory for no-deal, says Stormont junior minister

The Internal Markets Bill would override the NI Protocol - the part of the Brexit deal relating to NI

A Stormont minister has said he is convinced the UK government is on a trajectory towards a no-deal Brexit.

Junior executive minister Declan Kearney made his comments to a Stormont committee.

The committee is examining Brexit negotiations and the Internal Markets Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.

The bill would override the NI Protocol - the part of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland.

The EU has said if Parliament passed the legislation, it would be difficult for trade deal negotiations to continue, but Downing Street has said the bill is a safety net, in case talks to work out details of the NI Protocol fail.

However, it has admitted implementing it will break international law.

'Scaremongering'

Mr Kearney, a Sinn Féin junior minister, said he believed the government had "probably set itself on a trajectory to secure a non-agreed outcome or a crash-out Brexit".

DUP junior minister Gordon Lyons, also speaking to the Executive Office committee, said there was no agreement in the executive over Brexit and described the Internal Market Bill as a "step forward".

He also said critics of the bill who suggested it was an attack on the Good Friday Agreement were guilty of scaremongering, adding that people should be "very careful with their language".

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During the Stormont hearing, Mr Lyons clashed with Sinn Féin assembly member Martina Anderson.

Ms Anderson said the UK government's behaviour with Brexit and the Internal Market Bill meant they were guilty of breaking international law and rights were being ignored.

She said the UK government was not "upholding the law".

'Work together'

Mr Lyons said, as she had been a former IRA prisoner, Ms Anderson's comments were "hypocritical", adding that she had been a "member of an illegal organisation" and had "served time in prison".

He said the Foyle MLA was showing "a lack of self awareness" and that she had recently broken Covid-19 regulations.

In response, Ms Anderson said: "We all have come from a past."

She said a "war was a terrible thing but it is how we come out of it that matters".

She rejected Mr Lyons' comments and said "this is about how we share a different Ireland going forward".

The Foyle MLA also said politicians should "work together to build a better future".