Northern Irish DUP Leader: Barnier "does not understand" the unionist stance - BBC

Speaking to BBC News on Monday, the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster the EU's Chief Brexit Negotiator Barnier "does not understand" the unionist position in Northern Ireland adding that the DUP would not accept Northern Ireland being treated differently to the rest of the UK.

In December, the UK and EU reached a political agreement in which the UK committed to protecting north-south cooperation on the island of Ireland.

Key Quotes:

"Michel Barnier's trying to present himself as someone who cares deeply about Northern Ireland and if that is the case he needs to hear the fact that we are part of the United Kingdom [and] will remain part of the United Kingdom constitutionally, politically and economically.

Therefore his proposal of us being in an all-Ireland regulatory scenario with a border down the Irish Sea simply does not work.

It does not work constitutionally, politically and it certainly does not work from an economic perspective."