Sausage war casts shadow over G7
Leaders from some of the world’s wealthiest nations enjoyed a spell of glorious sunshine as they met to discuss vaccines, China and global corporate tax at the G7 summit in Cornwall this weekend. But an escalating briefing war over the Northern Ireland Protocol threatened to overshadow proceedings.
Over the course of the weekend, tensions were stoked as a succession of Europe’s most powerful figures lined up to tell the Prime Minister there was no room to renegotiate the UK’s Brexit deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron led the charge of EU leaders on Saturday morning, telling Boris Johnson that he had to “keep his word” if he wanted to reset relations with Paris.
But later that day the PM threatened to suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol by triggering Article 16, which can be invoked if there are “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of trade”.
He told Sky News: “I think we can sort it out but… it is up to our EU friends and partners to understand that we will do whatever it takes.”
Tensions escalated further on Saturday evening when The Telegraph reported that, according to a government source, Johnson asked Macron what he would do if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris. Macron was said to have argued that the comparison did not work because Paris and Toulouse were both part of the same country.
The reports prompted a rebuke from Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, who hit back at the “offensive” suggestion that Northern Ireland is not a proper part of the UK. He told EU leaders to be “pragmatic, not bloody minded” over the deal.
In return, Macron accused the UK of engaging in “polemics” and said that France had “never questioned British sovereignty or British territorial integrity”. He said that Britain and the EU needed to “stay very calm” to avoid a Brexit trade war.
Asked on Sunday evening if Brexit had created a “sour taste” at the summit, Johnson said the “vast majority” of discussions had nothing to do with Britain’s exit from the EU and that there had been a “fantastic degree of harmony” between the leaders.
But far from providing a peace offering, the PM used his final G7 press conference to reiterate the warning that he would do “whatever it takes” to protect the integrity of the UK.
He said: “We are all part of one great indivisible United Kingdom and that is the job of the UK government to uphold.”
Tensions over the Brexit deal have reached a new pitch ahead of a deadline for the implementation of a ban on imports of British chilled meats, including sausages and mince, to Northern Ireland which comes at the end of this month.
Shortly before the G7 gathering, Jake Sullivan, the US President’s national security adviser, told the BBC that Joe Biden has “deep” concerns that a UK-EU trade row could endanger peace in Northern Ireland.
But it would have been a great relief to Johnson that the President declined to raise the issue in their one-on-one meeting or mention the row in any of his public comments during the summit.