Boris Johnson Faces Uphill Battle in Return to Northern Ireland Power-Sharing

The UK government is ready to activate Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol after the EU repeatedly refused to negotiate to end the 'sausage war' caused by Brussels' interpretation of the agreement.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has had a hard time convincing Unionists and Republicans to form a joint government amid the row with the European Union (EU) over customs checks.

Johnson travelled to Belfast on Monday in a bid to persuade Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to return to the power-sharing arrangement customary since the 1999 Good Friday Agreement.

Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill is in line to become first minister after her party won the most seats — 27 out of 90 — in the Stormont Assembly for the first time since the devolved legislature was revived in 1996.

But the DUP, which finished second with 25 seats, has refused to nominate a deputy first minister or an assembly speaker until customs checks on goods from mainland Britain — imposed as part of the Northern Ireland Protocol tacked onto to the UK's withdrawal agreement with the European Union (EU) — are abolished.

Sinn Fein, which switched from its historical opposition to the EU to oppose Brexit, has condemned the Unionist stance as undermining the peace deal.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, the MP for Dublin Central in the Republic of Ireland, told a press conference alongside O'Neill that Johnson gave "no straight answers" during their meeting.

She accused him of being "willing to act in coordination with the DUP" on the protocol row with the EU, of which the republic remains a member.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is set to detail Downing Street's plans for invoking the widely-mischaracterised Article 16 of the protocol, which allows either side to take temporary remedial measures if trade is disrupted.

"Power sharing is the only game in town. Working together is the only option," McDonald said. "The unfortunate thing is that the British government now is playing a game of brinkmanship with the European institutions, indulging a section of political unionism which believes that it can hold a veto and frustrate and hold society to ransom."

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson also sounded disappointed after meeting Johnson — although reporters observed he looked upbeat at the prospect of Article 16 being brought into play.

The prospective deputy first minister refused to be placated by the draft Parliamentary amendments the protocol which Truss is set to unveil this week, saying: "The tabling of legislation is words.

"What I need is decisive action. And that means I want to see the government enacting legislation that will bring the solution that we need, Donaldson said. "Let's see what the government are prepared to do."

"I'm hoping that the government are going to do the right thing and help restore a consensus in Northern Ireland to address the very genuine and real problems that have been created by the Northern Ireland protocol," he added "So its actions that I will judge these things on, not just words."