Edwin Poots orders a stop to all Brexit agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports

In a bombshell announcement, Edwin Poots has announced that all checks of UK goods arriving into Northern Ireland are to stop.

The Northern Ireland agriculture minister has indicated for some time that he will stop checks at the ports and airports if he failed to get permission to carry on the checks from his Executive colleagues.

The decision to stop the checks is likely to put the EU under pressure, following indications from Liz Truss suggesting that the UK will not get involved with devolved affairs.

The Northern Irish government could find itself under threat should civil servants or outside governments override the process.

The decision is likely to be celebrated by the DUP and unionists, who have long opposed the Northern Ireland protocol.

The protocol was put in place in order to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland by creating a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea.

They claim the border has resulted in economic hardship, and has undermined Northern Ireland's constitutional position as an integral part of the UK by placing a barrier between it and Britain.