Lord Frost says Brexiters did not expect UK’s relationship with EU to be as difficult now as it is – politics live | Politics

Andrew Rosindell (Con) goes next.

He is contributing remotely, in his iPhone, and appears on the screen sideways.

Q: When the Northern Ireland protocol was signed, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said it would be a “cracking” deal for Northern Ireland. Was he right?

Frost says he might have been if the protocol had been implemented differently.

Q: How is it sustainable if it disrupts the union?

Frost says the Northern Ireland assembly will get a vote on this.

Q: But that will not happen for a few years. Shouldn’t we have bilateral arrangements with Ireland, instead of persisting with this “failed protocol”?

Frost says the UK is considering all its options. He says “the current situation is not satisfactory and it’s hard to see how it can be sustained”.

Stewart McDonald (SNP) goes next.

Q: How can the UK continue to try to shape EU rules?

Frost says the traditional influencing task remains important. He says it is important to spot ideas “upstream” and influence them.

It is difficult when you are not in the EU.

Q: It is harder.

But we are not bound by the results, Frost says.

Q: So do you think if the EU sets standards on, for example, data policy, we are not affected? That’s absurd.

Frost says the UK would not be part of the legal framework. But it is influenced by what happens elsewhere, he admits.

He says the UK could also respond by acting itself.

If it acts more quickly, it could influence the EU, he says.

He says he has always believed in regulatory competition.

Frost says the post-Brexit relationship with the UK is “settling down”. But it will be bumpy for some time, he says.

He says people who campaigned for leave would have been “surprise” to be told the relationship with the EU would be as “relatively difficult as it is now”.

Both sides will have to work through that, he says.

Frost says one day he might write a book about what it is like to negotiate with the EU.

Tom Tugendhat goes again. He questions Frost’s claims that nobody predicted the impact of the protocol on trade. He says the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium flagged this up. And Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s chief of staff, has said this was why May rejected an arrangement like this.

Frost says he is not saying nobody said this might happen. But the impact has been marked, he says.

Q: What made you think that the EU would adapt like this? It is not aways flexible.

Frost said they did hope, and “have reason to expect”, that in relation to Northern Ireland the EU would see things differently. He says they thought the EU would be responsive.

He is not saying there has been no responsiveness. But they are not there yet.

Tugendhat suggests hoping for that kind of approach from the “legalistic monster’ that is European court of justice was optimistic.

Frost concedes it was “ambitious’.

Q: Edwin Poots, the outgoing DUP leader, has said he expects significant changes to the protocol. Is that right?

Frost says he cannot comment on private conversations. But he says the government has made it clear that it thinks the current situation is not sustainable. The government is considering its options, he says.

And he says the UK has asked to extend the grace period for chilled meats. He says both sides are “thinking very actively” on this.

(The grace period is due to lapse at the end of this month. If it is not extended, the “sausage ban” will take effect, because Northern Ireland retailers will no longer be able to import chilled meats from Britain.)

UPDATE: These are from Mujtaba Rahman, the Brexit specialist at the Eurasia Group consultancy.

Q: How is it different from what you expected?

Frost says the “chilling effect” on trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland is quite strong. And he says nobody could know that until they started implementing the protocol.

He says there must be more pragmatic rules for goods that are not likely to leave the EU.

Q: Before agreeing the protocol, did you consider its impact on the Act of Union?

Frost says there is a court cases that touches on some of these issues. And the Withdrawal Act was passed by parliament, he says.

Graham Stringer (Lab) goes next.

Q: The PM says the Northern Ireland protocol should not impact on the indivisibility of the UK. But it has. What went wrong?

Frost says the NI protocol arrangement was exceptional, and a “big compromise”.

If those arrangements are to work, they must work in a pragmatic and proportional way, he says.

He says the government is implementing the protocol as best it can. And it is spending a lot of money on it.

But there is not a huge amount of engagement on this from the EU, he says.

Q: What will be the impact of the EU plan to limit the amount of UK TV content shown in Europe?

Frost says, as far as he understands it, the EU has just sent round a questionnaire asking for views on this.

The UK is not in favour, he says.

He says, if the EU chooses to harm itself and its viewers, the UK cannot stop them.

But he is sure “good sense will prevail”.

Q: This might suggest that the original deal was not a good one.

Frost says France has always taken the view that audio-visual arrangements are not part of free trade deals.

Chris Bryant (Lab) tells Frost that his description of his job makes it sound like the Europe minister job that Bryant himself once used to do in the Foreign Office.

Q: What was gained by not treating the EU ambassador to the UK as a full ambassador?

Frost says they were surprised this blew up as an issue. But it has now been resolved.

Q: What difference will it make treating the EU ambassador as a full ambassador?

Frost says they are still working out the details, but he says both sides think they have now found the right balance.

Tugendhat tells Frost he finds it hard to see how is is not Europe minister.

Frost says he has other responsibilities too.

Tugendhat suggests that makes him “Europe minister plus”.