Judge Suspends Northern Ireland Minister’s Order to End Sea Border Checks

Freight and goods lorries disembark from a ferry in Larne, Northern Ireland, on Feb. 3, 2022. Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

A High Court judge in Northern Ireland has suspended an order from a unionist minister to end port checks required under the UK–EU agreement on post-Brexit trade.

Northern Ireland’s Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), issued a unilateral direction on Feb. 2, instructing his officials to stop the agri-food checks on goods arriving from mainland Britain.