Blog: Brexit deal imposed on Belfast, says Irish leader Leo Varadkar – The Times

The Northern Ireland protocol was “imposed” on unionists without their support, Ireland’s prime minister admitted for the first time yesterday.

In the latest sign of efforts to win round the main Democratic Unionist Party to a compromise, Leo Varadkar said the EU was willing to be “flexible” in negotiations with the UK to achieve “broader support” for post-Brexit trading arrangements in the province.

Varadkar’s comments are significant because unionists regard him as one of the architects of the protocol and instrumental in the EU’s hardline stance in negotiations when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

Ireland’s leader told the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he had “regrets” about the protocol “imposed on Northern Ireland without the support of both communities”.

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