Brexit minister Lord Frost accuses EU of ignoring political sensitivities in Northern Ireland and destroying 'cross-community consent'

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Brexit minister Lord Frost has claimed the European Union has behaved “without regard to the huge political, economic and identity sensitivities” in Northern Ireland.

The Cabinet Office minister and former chief negotiator for Brexit also condemned the EU for destroying “cross-community consent” with an “overly strict” enforcement of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

His comments were published in the foreword to a new paper for the Policy Exchange think tank that sets out how negotiations in the Brexit process have been hindered by decisions made in 2017.

It comes after the UK and the EU put forward proposals to address the dispute over the protocol, in which he negotiated.

The protocol is a key part of the Brexit deal struck between London and Brussels and is designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

Northern Ireland is effectively kept in the single market due to the terms of the protocol.

This creates a border down the Irish Sea between the region and the rest of Great Britain – which has angered unionists and hit the UK’s internal market.

“We must return to the protocol and deliver a more robust, and more balanced, outcome than we could in 2019,” Lord Frost said.

He argues that a 2017 EU-UK joint report, which set the terms for the Brexit process, was a result of the UK failing to make “the necessary mental shift from being a member of the EU to negotiating exit from the EU”.

Lord Frost, who was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer last year, also claimed it was a result of the “extreme weakness” of the UK government after the June 2017 election.