Frost says the UK will protect the situation «in other ways» if no agreement is reached on the protocol

The UK will have to protect its position «in other ways» if it is not able to reach an agreement with the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol, according to the Brexit negotiator.

David Frost had said there was «momentum» for his government to «secure a consensus-based solution» after a meeting in Brussels with European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic on Friday.

David Frost wrote in the Mail on Sunday: «The current problems with protocol go to the heart of our territorial integrity, and what it means to be one country and one market. They just won’t go away.»

I still hope that the European Union can show the necessary ambition to solve the problem by agreement. If they can’t, then of course we will have to protect our standing in other ways.”

It comes hours after activists gathered at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic to warn the UK government against invoking Article 16.

A crowd gathered in Karikarnon yesterday to demand the preservation and protection of the post-Brexit arrangements made for Northern Ireland.

Speculation has persisted for months that the UK government is preparing to launch Article 16, which would suspend elements of the post-Brexit arrangements in place in Northern Ireland.