Can a united unionist front persuade Boris Johnson to throw his weight behind a campaign to remove the Northern Ireland protocol?

The DUP's efforts to challenge the ongoing difficulties we're seeing for GB to NI trade are central to the current political debate.

And it's clear that the public conversation has become increasingly toxic since the EU's short-lived plan to trigger Article 16 of the

protocol last Friday night. So what happens to the protocol? How does unionism play it from here?

Is anybody in Westminster really listening to the concerns being expressed on this side of the Irish

sea? And is the EU likely to approach things differently after its blunder five days ago?

John, we're recording this just after 3 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. Where are we?

So this meeting is coming up a bit later on between Michael Gove, the Vice President of the Commission

and also the First and deputy first ministers.

And we know what is going to be on the agenda there because we've had this letter this morning,

which Michael Gove has sent to the commission.

And basically the UK government is asking for a massive extension to the Irish sea border grace periods.

So basically, at the moment the Irish sea border,

even with the trouble it is causing, has not been implemented in full. So supermarkets,

partial delivery firms and others currently have this three month grace period where they don't

have all the requirements. That's due to end in April. Michael Gove has asked for that to be

extended out to January

2023. So that would be an enormous extension. We also know that in terms of allies that he might

have in looking for those easements among them are the Irish government because Simon Coveney, the foreign minister,

was out doing interviews this morning and he was saying, yes, there are problems with the protocol

and yes, we do have to do more, we have to be flexible within the terms of the treaty.

And we've also had a couple of Irish MEPs saying quite explicitly, yes, that the grace periods should be extended.

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