Lord Frost called on the EU to be “sensible” last night and stop obsessing over red tape, after talks over the Northern Ireland Protocol broke up with a disagreement over olive oil shipments.

The former Brexit minister criticised Brussels’ negotiators for being fixated over the “strategic risk” of everyday products being shipped to the province as Europe faces its biggest war since 1945.

His intervention came after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and her EU counterpart, Maros Sefcovic, once again failed to break the deadlock in the long-running negotiations over the implementation of the post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.

“At one end of our continent, the EU is working with us on great matters of war and peace, life and death,” Lord Frost said.

“At the other, it is worrying about the strategic risk from olive oil.

“Isn’t it time for the EU to be sensible and find a sustainable solution on the Protocol?”

Olive oil threat

Britain and the EU have been locked in talks to reduce trade disruptions caused by the introduction of the Protocol, which has created a trade border in the Irish Sea.

Brussels has proposed cutting the number of controls by up to 80 per cent in order to ease the burdens of the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, but on Monday its negotiators raised concerns that unchecked bottles of olive oil could pose a threat to the EU Single Market. 

“The issue is, does the EU know what goods are coming into its Single Market,” an EU official said.

But privately British negotiators said the bloc’s strategy would likely backfire, as it paints the EU as the intransigent party.

A UK Government source told the Telegraph: “While we’re focused on peace and stability in Northern Ireland, the EU are obsessing about types of olive oil and making themselves look unreasonable.

‘Tone deaf’

“It misses the bigger picture and looks tone-deaf when we could be about to see a war in Eastern Europe.”

Speaking after the talks, Ms Truss told Mr Sefcovic that the bloc needs to improve its offer to cut red tape, which unionists argue has driven a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

“We need to see things change on the ground, we need to see goods flow much more freely,” added the Foreign Secretary. 

Mr Sefcovic said it was important to rebuild UK-EU relations in order to face down the Russian threat of aggression towards Ukraine.

He said: “Today’s current challenging times call, more than ever before, for a strong partnership between the EU and the UK.”