The UK must show the EU it “can be trusted again” after its reputation was “trashed” by the previous government signing deals it had no intention of honouring, according to a veteran British minister.

In Brussels following last month's summit to reset relations, Hilary Benn, the British minister for Northern Ireland, told Euractiv that an upcoming deal that will see the UK accept EU food and drink rules in return for drastically reduced checks and paperwork has received “near universal business approbation in Northern Ireland”.

Trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland became highly complicated after the UK left the EU. A 2023 agreement, known as the Windsor Framework , went some way towards easing frictions, and a SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) deal , which the two sides c

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