Macron fans flames with Ulster ‘war’ claim

frAncE’S president was accused of trying to sow division after claiming part of the Brexit deal is a matter of ‘war and peace for Ireland’.

Emmanuel Macron said the integrity of the northern Ireland Protocol was vital and it was ‘of existential importance for Europe not to compromise’ over it.

The protocol was negotiated to avoid a hard border with Ireland, by effectively keeping northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods. But Unionists have been pressing for it to be scrapped because of the trade barriers it has created on products crossing the Irish Sea from Great Britain.

Mr Macron’s explosive remarks last night provoked fury in Westminster.

A senior Whitehall source said they were ‘incendiary and ill-judged’ but not unexpected. They said he ‘clearly wants to be incredibly divisive, rather than concentrating on solutions that could be reached that would be in the better interests of all the people of northern Ireland’.

Another senior government source said: ‘There is genuine concern and surprise about Macron’s loose language on war and peace on northern Ireland.’

According to Irish broadcaster rTE, Mr Macron said: ‘The protocol is of existential importance for Europe not to compromise when it comes to our single market, the integrity of that, otherwise there are no longer any rules at the borders.

‘It’s a question of war and peace for Ireland. So we should avoid any temptation to be less than serious.

‘And so I think we should not play with this issue, but it is an issue we will deal with in Europe in a united way.’