BORIS Johnson ripped up the soft-Brexit Withdrawal Agreement after the European Union threatened to stop Britain from sending food exports to Northern Ireland, it has been claimed. 

The Sun newspaper revealed today that Boris’ decision to rip up the deal came after the EU attempted to ‘halt’ UK food exports to Northern Ireland if the UK did not ‘dance to their tune’ in trade talks. 

Under the Withdrawal Agreement signed by Boris last year, certain points say of “products of animal origin” such as meats, fish, shellfish, eggs and dairy from the UK mainland over to Northern Ireland are subject to EU oversight, and the EU was using this as “leverage” in trade talks. 

The EU has a “Third Country” list of approved third parties that can legally import agricultural goods into areas subject to their rules.

The Sun claims that the EU would use that to ban the mainland from sending food exports to Northern Ireland if trade talks collapsed. 

The changes to the bill mean that the UK will have what the Government describes as a “safety net” to stop any food export bans by the EU. 

EU sources told The Sun that Mr Barnier, on a trip to London tomorrow will tell No10 to “tell it to our face” if it plans to rip up the Withdrawal Agreement.

One said: “We’re not going to give certain elements in the Tory party the satisfaction of us being the ones to walk away.”

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