PM pledges extra resources to NI's Covid-19 battle

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will provide extra resources to help the Stormont executive fight a second wave of coronavirus.

He said he will work with the first and deputy first ministers if they opt for a so-called "circuit breaker".

This is a limited lockdown over a number of weeks to try and stem rising Covid-19 cases.

First Minister Arlene Foster said the move would only be considered if London agreed to compensate businesses.

Asked if he would provide the resources, the prime minister told BBC News NI "yes absolutely", but added that he wanted first to see the effect of the restrictions which have been introduced.

"I think we need to discuss together what exactly needs to be to be done, I don't want to go back into a kind of a national lockdown of the kind that we saw in March and April where everybody has to stay at home," he said

"I think we need to see the effect of the measures we've taken start to feed through a bit."

'Protect the union'

He added that could take "a few more days, a week or so, before we would expect to see any kind of results from those restrictions. But obviously, we're talking the whole time about where the virus is and where it's going".

On Brexit, the prime minister also denied that his plan to take the legal power to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement had backfired after the EU mounted a counter legal challenge on Thursday.

"Actually all we're doing is trying to protect the the Good Friday Agreement, protect the union with Northern Ireland, as you'd expect any government to do, and to stop an unnecessary border down the down the Irish Sea," he said.

Asked about his plans to push ahead with new border inspection post at a cost of £30m the Prime Minister said what had been agreed is "supported by all parties in Northern Ireland".

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"We're going to help our friends in the south by doing some checks on goods coming into Northern Ireland that might go on into the Republic," he said.

"What we won't do is do checks on all the goods coming into Northern Ireland from GB, that would be mad, because most of them after all, don't go, into the Republic.

"So what we're doing is helping our EU friends, helping Ireland, helping them protect their internal market but also sticking up for the union, which is very, very important."

He also said he remained hopeful that a free trade deal will be agreed with the EU similar to the one it has with Canada.